16 September 2014 | News | By BioSpectrum Bureau
Ebola crisis: Malaysia to donate medical gloves
Malaysia to send 11 containers, each holding 1.9 million gloves to West Africa
Singapore: The Malaysian Prime Minister Mr Najib Razak announced that the country will be sending more than 20 million rubber gloves to address the acute shortage of medical equipment in the West African nations, battling the deadly Ebola virus.
Health experts have further highlighted that there was an acute shortage of rubber gloves in the affected nations, leading to more deaths and this further elevated the risk of virus dissemination into the environment.
Malaysia is a leading producer of rubber gloves with 60 percent of the world's supply of latex medical gloves, coming from the country.
The Malaysian government spokesperson said that Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will each receive three containers, while Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo will each receive one container.
As per reports, the poorly resourced West African nations have been overrun and are now facing an acute shortage of personnel protective equipment, gowns and other medical aids. Mr Najib said that Sime Darby, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong, and IOI Corp, are the few companies who are contributing gloves to the West African nations.