Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced on that social networking site that he and his wife, Priscilla, have donated $25 million to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for the fight against the Ebola virus disease.

“We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio,” he said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

“We believe our grant is the quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome,” Zuckerberg added.

The founder of the popular social networking site believes that making a donation of this kind is the “quickest way to empower the CDC and the experts in this field to prevent this outcome”.

Since the Ebola epidemic broke out last March, more than 4,000 people, most of them in West Africa, have died from the disease, according to the World Health Organisation.

Zuckerberg said that Ebola so far has infected more than 8,400 people and is spreading rapidly with projections being that one million people or more will become infected in the coming months if they do not receive treatment.

He emphasised that donations like his directly help the “heroes” who are on the “front line” working to build health centres, train local personnel and identify Ebola cases.

He said he and his wife hoped that their donation would save lives and keep the epidemic under control.