The Ebola virus. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli government is in the final stages of preparing to send much-needed equipment and medical supplies to the West African nations stricken by Ebola.

The shipment, which is leaving from the Israeli port city of Ashdod to the countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea, includes six cargo containers full of special equipment used to set up portable field hospitals.

“Each clinic consists of 20 beds and it’s a fully equipped clinic with beds, and with carts and treatment carts and oxygen and certain medications and protection gear,” Gil Heskel, the head of Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Aid and Development, told Reuters.

Currently, the Israeli humanitarian group IsraAID is the only organization from the Jewish state operating in West Africa, where it provides training to healthcare workers to address the psycho-social impact of Ebola.

The Israeli government will put the West African countries in touch with Israeli aid groups in order to send more volunteers, doctors, and other medical staff from Israel. Aid will also be distributed to Cameroon and the Ivory Coast to prevent the disease from spreading there. The total cost of the assistance is approximately $314,000.