US to send troops, build field hospitals to fight Ebola – Obama

President Barack Obama

After an in-person briefing from the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced a “major increase” in the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The United States will send troops, material to build field hospitals, additional health care workers, community care kits and badly needed medical supplies.

Countless taxis filled with families worried they’ve become infected with Ebola currently crisscross Monrovia in search of help.

They scour the Liberian capital, but not one clinic can take them in for treatment.

“Today, there is not one single bed available for the treatment of an Ebola patient in the entire country of Liberia,” said Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization’s director-general.

“As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients,” the WHO said.

Hospitals and clinics in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — the countries hit hardest by the outbreak — are overwhelmed by what the WHO is calling the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.

The virus has killed at least 2,400 people, and thousands more are infected. And there are now cases in Nigeria and Senegal.

“The number of new cases is increasing exponentially,” the WHO said, calling the situation a “dire emergency with … unprecedented dimensions of human suffering.”

“Men and women and children are just sitting, waiting to die right now,” Obama said.

“This is a daunting task, but here’s what gives us hope. The world knows how to fight this disease. It’s not a mystery. We know the science. We know how to prevent it from spreading. We know how to care for those who contract it. We know that if we take the proper steps, we can save lives. But we have to act fast,” Obama said.

“We can’t dawdle on this one. We have to move with force and make sure that we are catching this as best we can, given that it has already broken out in ways that we have not seen before.”

The CDC already has hundreds of professionals on the ground in what the President described as the “largest international response in the history of the CDC.”

Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, commander of the U.S. Army Africa, arrived in Liberia on Tuesday. Liberian leadership asked that the U.S. military step in to help support civilian efforts there.

Williams will coordinate the military’s efforts to improve logistics, to build additional field hospitals and to create what the President called an “air bridge” to bring in additional supplies and health care workers. The effort will be called Operation United Assistance.

The new treatment centers may house up to 1,700 additional beds. American military personnel in the region could increase by 3,000, administration officials said.

The U.S. will also create a new training facility to help prepare thousands more health care workers to handle sick patients. U.S. medics will train up to 500 health care workers per week to identify and care for people with Ebola.

USAID will give 400,000 treatment kits with sanitizer and other protective items like gloves to families to help them protect their own safety as they care for sick relatives.

The President also called on Congress to approve additional funding his administration requested to carry on these critical efforts to stop the virus.

Obama added that “faced with this outbreak, the world is looking to” the United States to lead international efforts to combat the virus. He said the United States is ready to take on that leadership role.

“Here’s the hard truth. In West Africa, Ebola is now an epidemic of the likes that we have not seen before. It’s spiraling out of control,” Obama said. “If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people infected with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us.”

Washington has already committed more than $100 million to combat Ebola, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Last week, USAID said it would spend $75 million to build treatment facilities and supply them with medical equipment. The Pentagon says it’s working to shift $500 million of not yet obligated funds toward the Ebola effort.

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Public health campaigns will be broadcast through existing networks in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

‘Hundreds turn into thousands’

The President’s visit to the CDC comes amid escalating criticism from health experts of the global response to the outbreak in West Africa.

U.S. officials hope a more coordinated response on the ground, put in place by the United States, will encourage other nations to step up their efforts.

“This is a global threat and demands a global response,” Obama said. He added that the international community needs to move faster.

Next week, the U.S. will chair an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to maximize the response to the Ebola crisis. The White House will also bring more countries together to talk about future health threats.

Tuesday, WHO announced that China dispatched a mobile laboratory team to Sierra Leone to help test for the virus. The team of 59 from the Chinese Center for Disease Control includes epidemiologists, clinicians and nurses. This team will join 115 Chinese medical staff already on the ground in Sierra Leone.

Source: CNN