World Bank sees financial impact of Ebola at as much as $32.6 billion in Africa

Four survivors of the Ebola outbreak, who were treated by Gorbee Logan, a Liberian doctor who says he has successfully treated Ebola patients with anti-retroviral drugs, walk at a clinic outside Monrovia October 3, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue

GENEVA (Reuters) - The regional impact of West Africa's Ebola epidemic could reach $32.6 billion by the end of 2015 if it spreads significantly beyond the worst-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Bank said on Wednesday. "The enormous economic cost of the current outbreak to the affected countries and the world could have been avoided by prudent ongoing investment in health systems-strengthening," World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in a statement. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Louise Ireland)