Australia is upping its monetary contribution to the increasingly globalized effort to fight Ebola to A$8 Million.  But the medical charity that has been on the front lines plans to reject its share of that purse, saying that more personnel and equipment are urgently needed instead of cash.

“Health systems in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are under severe strain, and the United Nations assesses that these countries are facing a humanitarian emergency,” said Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) would have gotten $2.5 Million.  But West Africa has less use for money than for people.

“This money would be better spent providing capacity that Medecins Sans Frontieres and other NGOs cannot,” the group’s Australia executive director Paul McPhun told AAP.  “Our teams have been overwhelmed for some time now, and are forced to turn away patients that are highly infectious.  What is needed is a massive increase in personnel, equipment and logistical support.”

It’s not the first time that Australia’s contribution has been questioned.  A woman who just returned home to Perth, SA from three years working for aid organizations in West Africa is calling for Australia to do more.  Ali Readhead has launched an online petition calling on Julie Bishop to send troops to set up a field hospital in Sierra Leone, just as the US is now doing on a larger scale.

“Australia has trained biological hazard military units that could help contain this deadly virus – the same kinds of units the UK and US governments are sending in to help,” Ms. Readhead told the ABC earlier this week.  “I think particularly at a time like this when the Australian Government is committing troops to Iraq this would be really positive thing for the Government to do to show that our military can also be used for humanitarian purposes in West Africa so that we can stand alongside governments there and support them.”