REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, NEW YORK -- The United Nations has allocated $3.8 million to the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) to help transport medics and supplies needed to fight Ebola in West Africa, said the UN health expert Dr. David Nabarro.

"UNHAS is a vital service to the Ebola response. Non-governmental organizations, UN personnel and other responders will be able to use the service to travel and deliver supplies," Dr. Nabarro, UN Ebola coordinator, said on Wednesday. "The pilots, crew and support staff are a vital part of the response," he added.

African governments have reduced commercial travel in an effort to stop travelers spreading the hemorrhagic fever but the UN says this is making it harder to get urgently-needed staff, medicines and gear to the affected areas.

Almost 2,300 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It began in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The WHO says it could infect some 20,000 people before it is brought under control.

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