CRI听力:China Dispatches Lab Team to Ebola-hit Sierra Leone

China has dispatched a laboratory team to Sierra Leone to help the country in combating Ebola.

The team of 59 medical experts from China's Center of Disease Control and Prevention is expected to take part in virus testing.

Wang Yu is the director of the center.

"We have at least 70,000 Chinese citizens in these three Ebola-affected countries. In addition, there are a big number of people from western Africa coming to China every year. So the communications are very extensive. We have always said that epidemic diseases are borderless."

Sierra Leone is set to restrict residents to the areas around their homes for three days from this Friday in a bid to halt new infections.

The Chinese team will help with virus testing during the three-day lockdown.

So far, nearly 5,000 people in Western African countries, mostly Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, have been infected by the virus.

Over 2,400, or half of those infected, have died, with Liberia bearing the brunt.

United Nations officials say 1 billion US dollars is needed to fight the uNPRecedented outbreak.

Dr. David Nabarro is the UN coordinator for Ebola.

"By my estimation the amount for which we have requested was around a $100 million a month ago and now it is $1 billion, so our ask has gone up 10 times in a month. And the reason for that is the outbreak in last months has doubled in size. And we realise, because it's going to go on doubling in that sort of frequency if we don't deal with it, the amounts requested have increased dramatically."

The World Health Organization anticipates that over 20 thousand people will be infected by the virus.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged the international community to move quickly to contain the outbreak.

The U.N chief is set to launch a global response coalition in New York tomorrow.

The World Bank Group has already approved a 105 million dollar grant to finance Ebola-containment efforts.

The grant is part of the 200 million dollar Ebola emergency fund announced by the group in August.