DAKAR, Ramadan 19, 1436, July 06, 2015, SPA -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone need a further $696 million in donor funding to rebuild their battered health services over the next two years in the wake of the deadly Ebola epidemic, senior World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Monday, Reuters reported. WHO Assistant Director General for Health Systems and Innovation Marie-Paule Kieny said that donors had pledged $1.4 billion of an estimated $2.1 billion required by the three countries before December 2017. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will host an international Ebola recovery conference in New York on Friday to raise additional funds for reconstruction. More than 500 healthcare staff are among the over 11,200 people killed in West Africa by the worst recorded outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, which erupted in Guinea in December 2013 and continues to claim lives. "Full recovery in the three countries will not happen if we don't strengthen the health system," Kieny told a conference call with journalists. She said additional funding would also be required after 2017. The European Union on Monday approved 1.15 billion euros in aid for West Africa through to 2020, nearly doubling its previous commitment to a region that is a major source of migrants seeking to enter Europe. --SPA 23:15 LOCAL TIME 20:15 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w