US To Assign 3000 From US Military To Fight Ebola

Washington — The Obama administration is
ramping up its response to West Africa's Ebola
crisis, preparing to assign 3 000 U.S. military
personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical
and logistical support to overwhelmed local
health care systems and to boost the number of
beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the
epidemic.
President Barack Obama planned to announce the
stepped up effort Tuesday during a visit to the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
in Atlanta amid alarm that the outbreak could
spread and that the deadly virus could mutate
into a more easily transmitted disease.
The new U.S. muscle comes after appeals from
the region and from aid organizations for a
heightened U.S. role in combatting the outbreak
blamed for more than 2 200 deaths.
Also Read: World lost 'precious time' in Ebola
fight: EU
Administration officials said Monday that the new
initiatives aim to:
— Train as many as 500 health care workers a
week.
— Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region of
100 beds each.
— Set up a joint command headquartered in
Monrovia, Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and
international relief efforts.
— Provide home health care kits to hundreds of
thousands of households, including 50,000 that
the U.S. Agency for International Development will
deliver to Liberia this week.
— Carry out a home- and community-based
campaign to train local populations on how to
handle exposed patients.
The officials, speaking on the condition of
anonymity to discuss the plans ahead of Obama's
announcement, said the cost of the effort would
come from $500 million in overseas contingency
operations, such as the war in Afghanistan, that
the Pentagon already has asked Congress to
redirect to carry out humanitarian efforts in Iraq
and in West Africa.
The officials said it would take about two weeks
to get U.S. forces on the ground.
Sen. Chris Coons, the chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations African affairs subcommittee,
applauded the new U.S. commitment. Coons
earlier had called for the Obama administration to
step up its role in West Africa.
"This humanitarian intervention should serve as a
firewall against a global security crisis that has
the potential to reach American soil," Coons said.
Hardest hit by the outbreak are Liberia, Sierra
Leone and Guinea. The virus also has reached
Nigeria and Senegal. Ebola is spread through
direct contact with the bodily fluids of sick
patients, making doctors and nurses especially
vulnerable to contracting the virus that has no
vaccine or approved treatment.
The U.S. effort will include medics and corpsmen
for treatment and training, engineers to help erect
the treatment facilities and specialists in logistics
to assist in patient transportation.
Also Read: Malaysia to send 20 mln medical
gloves to fight Ebola
Obama's trip to the CDC comes a day after the
United States also demanded a stepped-up
international response to the outbreak. The U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha
Power, on Monday called for an emergency
meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday,
warning that the potential risk of the virus could
"set the countries of West Africa back a
generation."
Power said the meeting Thursday would mark a
rare occasion when the Security Council, which is
responsible for threats to international peace and
security, addresses a public health crisis.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was
expected to brief the council along with World
Health Organization chief Dr. Margaret Chan and
Dr. David Nabarro, the recently named U.N.
coordinator to tackle the disease, as well as
representatives from the affected countries.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest,
responding to criticism that the U.S. needed a
more forceful response to the outbreak, said
Monday that Obama has identified the outbreak
"as a top national security priority," worried that
it could contribute to political instability in the
region and that left unchecked the virus could
transform and become more contagious.
Also Read: Obama to ask for $88 mn to boost
anti-Ebola effort
He said the administration responded "pretty
aggressively" when the outbreak was first
reported in March.
"Since that time our assistance has steadily been
ramping up," he said.
The Senate was also weighing in Tuesday with a
hearing to examine the U.S. response. An
American missionary doctor who survived the
disease was among those scheduled to testify.
Four Americans have been or are being treated for
Ebola in the U.S. after evacuation from Africa.
The U.S. has spent more than $100 million
responding to the outbreak and has offered to
operate treatment centers for patients.
While at the CDC, Obama also will be briefed
about cases of respiratory illness being reported in
the Midwest, the White House said. Public health
officials are monitoring a high number of reported
illnesses associated with human enterovirus 68 in
Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and elsewhere.
After leaving Atlanta, Obama planned to travel to
Florida to visit the headquarters of U.S. Central
Command in Tampa, where he'll meet with
military officials about the U.S. counterterrorism
campaign against the Islamic State group in Iraq
and Syria. Central Command overseas U.S.
military efforts in the Middle East.