(VOVworld) – US President Barack Obama has urged Congress to approve more than 6 billion USD in emergency funding to help tackle the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

US President Barack Obama talks about Ebola during his visit to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland on December 2, 2014. (Photo: Reuters)

Speaking at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland on Tuesday, he called on the lawmakers to put aside budgetary disagreements and approve the package before Christmas. He said that the Ebola epidemic had to be completely eliminated and needed more financial support. The latest statistics from the World Health Organisation indicate that more than 6,000 people have died of the Ebola virus among 17,000 infections, mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.