Earlier this morning, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced plans to donate $25 million to the Centers for Disease Control Foundation to help fight Ebola. “The Ebola epidemic is at a critical turning point. It has infected 8,400 people so far, but it is spreading very quickly and projections suggest it could infect 1 million people or more over the next several months if not addressed,” Zuckerberg said in a statement posted to his Facebook page. “We need to get Ebola under control in the near term so that it doesn’t spread further and become a long term global health crisis that we end up fighting for decades at large scale, like HIV or polio.” The Facebook CEO also called out the heroic work of the frontline responders, Forbes reported.

Zuckerberg, who at age 30 is already among the top philanthropists in the U.S. as measured by 2013 giving,  joins a growing cadre of wealthy individuals who have donated to stop the spread of this disease. On September 10, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced it was immediately giving $50 million to the United Nations agencies and international organizations involved in the response to help them and local governments buy supplies and build up emergency operations in affected countries. His Microsoft MSFT +0.18% cofounder Paul Allen has also been quick to respond, giving $20 million to fight Ebola and launching the Tackle Ebola campaign.