The Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ebola Crisis Appeal has raised £20m in the ten days since its launch at the end of last month.

Money raised includes £5m in UK government aid match funding and £4.5m raised by the DEC's 13 member agencies. 

Its member charities have reached eight million people in West Africa with humanitarian aid funded by a variety of sources including donations to the DEC appeal via the web, telephone and post.

More than £6m was raised in the first 24 hours of the appeal’s launch on 30 October.

Saleh Saeed, chief executive of the DEC, said: “The response of the UK public has been absolutely fantastic. 

"Once again, people have shown we are amongst the world’s most generous nations. The DEC is extremely grateful for the kindness and generosity donors have shown in supporting our unprecedented appeal for the Ebola crisis and can only say - thank you.

“Our member agencies have already done a great deal to help stop the spread of the virus and support those caught up in the crisis but there is still so much more to do.”

DEC member agencies have so far supported more than 4.8 million people in Sierra Leone, more than 1.7 million people in Liberia and more than 1.1 million in Guinea. 

Charities have also reached half a million people in neighbouring countries, including Nigeria, Mali and Senegal.

Facebook has also added an Ebola donation button to its site to make it quicker and easier for people to give to the cause.  Donations made through the button will be shared between International Medical Corps, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and Save the Children.

So far, almost 5,000 people have been killed by the virus and more than 13,000 have been infected. However, experts say the real figures could be far higher due to under-reporting.