Ebola outbreak: Barack Obama 'to pledge US troops to fight virus'
US President Barack Obama is to announce plans on Tuesday to send 3,000 troops to Liberia to help fight the Ebola virus, US officials say.
It is understood the US military will oversee building new treatment centres and help train medical staff.
There has been criticism of the slow international response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the worst-hit countries. The outbreak has killed more than 2,400 people.
More than half of those killed by the virus have been in Liberia. The World Health Organization (WHO) warned recently that the country could see thousands of more cases.
United Nations officials will discuss the international response to the outbreak at a meeting in Geneva.
US officials said the aim of the country's anti-Ebola initiative is to:
- Train up to 500 healthcare workers a week
- Construct 17 heathcare facilities, each with about 100 beds
- Establish a joint command based in Monrovia, Liberia, to co-ordinate between US and international relief efforts
- Distribute home healthcare kits to thousands of households
- Conduct a home and community-based campaign to train local people in how to handle patients
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has appealed directly to Mr Obama for help in tackling the outbreak.
Several disease experts have welcomed the US plan, though some also question its focus on Liberia.
"We should see all of West Africa now as one big outbreak," says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, quoted in The New York Times.
"It's very clear we have to deal with all the areas with Ebola."
On Monday, Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama said greater and faster outside help was needed.
Ebola spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments.
Liberia at a glance:- Infrastructure devastated by a 14-year civil war
- About 250,000 people killed in the conflict that ended in 2003
- One doctor to treat nearly 100,000 people before Ebola outbreak
- Ebola cases this year: 2,046
- Ebola deaths this year: 1,224
- Population: 4.4 million
Source: WHO
Maybe it should be unlawful for Liberians to trade bodily fluids with primates or eat them.
ReplyDeleteCUBA SENDS DOCTORS WE SEND TROOPS!
ReplyDeleteyeah, obama fights Ebola with OUR Middle Class Tax Dollars, while the Country of Africa is Uber-Rich with Natural Resources, diamond mines, etc; and not a single bit of that Countries immense Wealth used to help, just the Tax-Dollars of ultra-Stupid American Middle-Class Taxpayer Sheeple. Then our soldiers will get it and spread it back here, just like the SARS virus, and other diseases already here filling up our emergency rooms, thanks to obam allowing illegals to just waltz into the USA unchecked. ,. Great going obama 666. War, famine, pestilence, plague, this guy does it all or helps it all along. Get Thee Behind Me, Satan, aka, obama, the Great Deceiver.....
ReplyDeleteLet's send our best and brightest Progressives.
ReplyDeletewatched the Roosevelt series tonightmhave to say both TR and FDR were all for their country with a plan each for the entire country when things went bad,Teddy Panama Canal,national parks as living existing monument to as they were,Noble peace prize for ending with nogotiations the Russo Japan war,not as a community organizer i might add,creation of the pure food and drug act,end of child labor,and he was a republican Fdr,social security for American Workers,the Wpa to put ppl back to work,CCC camps for youngsters to learn a trade and rebuild areas of the country that belonged to the fed govt,the TVA project to bring electricity to rural areas,the list goes on and now we hve this person in office that is more concerned in the arab sitiuation in Syria,lets a deserter walk and releases 5 arab muslim killers so they can get back to killing americans, and not a word anymore of Bergdahl the traitor on his orders brcause if hes ct,martialed it will look bad for barry and told the JAG unit of the army to let the kid traitor walk,founding fathers and Roosevelts spinning in their graves,
ReplyDeleteThe whole kiss my ass attitude this president and his administration have for middle class America is infuriating. As for his Attorney General Holder, its a mystery why he himself hasn't been prosecuted for the Fast and Furious fiasco. And someone help with the math....Jesse Jr. steals, misappropriates and depresses himself after being caught using $750,000 for his own use while goofy Blago gets 14 years for acting like a ward committeeman at a slating session. I wish his brother who handled campaign finances would write a book about the meetings with Jesse Jr's Indian fund raisers. Its all bullshit and silly us for thinking the government is on the square. Sorry gang, I'm going straight Republican next time around.
ReplyDeleteLet the africans die!
ReplyDeleteAt least 8 Ebola aid workers reportedly killed 'in cold blood' by villagers in Guinea
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/19/at-least-8-ebola-aid-workers-reportedly-killed-in-cold-blood-by-villagers-in/
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/19/at-least-8-ebola-aid-workers-reportedly-killed-in-cold-blood-by-villagers-in/
Isn't there already a Red Cross, United Nations, Peace Corps, Volunteer Doctors and Nurses+ other hospital personnel, Missionaries, etc. already available ? Why the use of the U.S. Military ? Think about it. Just another way to handcuff our Troops by Hussein Obama & Co? What is the real Agenda here ? Just who IS protecting U.S. Taxpaying Citizens ?
ReplyDelete