Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama will on Tuesday seek to "turn the tide" in the Ebola epidemic by ordering 3,000 US military personnel to West Africa and launching a major health care training and hygiene program.
The White House said Obama will travel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to meet US health chiefs and make the announcement, meant to spur a global effort to fight an outbreak that has already killed 2,400 people.
The announcement comes amid increasing alarm about the worst-ever outbreak of the disease which has spread through Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Most of the new US effort will be concentrated in impoverished Liberia -- the most badly affected nation.
Obama will announce that US Africa Command will set up a headquarters in Monrovia to act as a regional command and control center to coordinate US military and international relief programs. The effort will involve an estimated 3,000 American military personnel, senior officials said. Many of the forces will be positioned at a staging base to expedite the transit of equipment and personnel.
- 500 health workers a week - View gallery US President Barack Obama speaks during Laborfest in … US President Barack Obama speaks during Laborfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on September 1, 2014 (AFP …
US advisors will also train up to 500 health care providers per week in Liberia, in a bid to improve the direct medical care and the crippled health infrastructure in the country.
In addition, Washington will send 65 public health service corps to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced US military hospital to care for health workers who become sick with Ebola.
The United States will also, working in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund, immediately send Ebola prevention kits, including disinfectant and advice to 400,000 of the most vulnerable families in Liberia.
"What is clear is in order to combat and contain the outbreak at its source, we need to partner and lead an international response," said one senior US official, on condition of anonymity.
- Turn the tide - View gallery Liberian Red Cross health workers wearing protective … Liberian Red Cross health workers wearing protective suits carry the body of a victim of the Ebola v …
The official said the Obama administration believes its latest emergency action could help "turn the tide" and slow the spread of the epidemic.
The White House however still believes that there is no realistic threat to the United States from the Ebola epidemic. It considers that any cases that do materialize on the US mainland among travelers, would be quickly isolated.
The United States has so far spent $100 million on fighting the Ebola epidemic and the US Agency for International Development plans to allocate another $75 million to increase the number of Ebola treatment units and protective gear for health providers.
In addition, the administration has asked Congress for a further $88 million to fund the fight against Ebola in the coming months.
The money is contained in a short term bill to fund the government until mid-December which could pass Congress as soon as this week.
More than 100 CDC workers are already at work in West Africa, and many more staff are coordinating their work at the agency's Atlanta headquarters.
It was unclear how many of the new US government personnel being sent to West Africa would be deployed in direct contact with patients. The number however appears limited.
Obama first said last week that he was going to use a major military deployment to step up US efforts to fight the Ebola epidemic.
His remarks, and a recent YouTube message from the president offering guidance to the people of Africa on halting infections, highlight increasing White House concern about the national security and humanitarian implications of the rapid spread of the disease.
The Pentagon had already announced it would send a 25-bed field hospital Liberia.
The new effort will also see the United States construct 17 Ebola treatment centers with 100 beds in each.
Officials said meanwhile that the effort to train 500 health workers per week to meet the shortage in demand in affected nations would go on for at least six months.
The US effort is intended to control the epidemic at its source in West Africa, blunt the social and economic cost of the disease and to repair regional health infrastructure.
Poster Comment:
Steve F As a retired Army officer 9mustang), I can say that even though all soldiers are "taught" Nuclear Biological Chemical warfare concepts, the equipment they have is based on one 8-hour exposure to any of these, then the clothing is disposed of, the protective mask has to be sterilized and the filters changed out, the boots and rubber gloves immersed in 30% bleach. A changing station has to be maintained 24/7 with personnel in their own protective equipment for the entire shift. Can the military do patient care in these protective suits? No, all they can do is move bodies around. Sending the Corps of Public Health Officers? You won't believe how fast they can resign their commissions. Officers can resign since this isn't a wartime mission.53 Mustang means prior enlisted service - in my case, preventive medicine specialist and laboratory specialist, Medical Service Corps and Chemical Officer. Training in Reverse Isolation for communicable diseases.
Jeffrey Dahmer Fourth, I agree that the bleach is nasty, but you must realize we are using several thousand gallons of 25% bleach per hour. When a bleach line blows apart, or a bleach pump tears itself apart and floods the place, we have a real problem. It is nasty stuff that you do not want to get covered with, but not nearly as bad as the HF acid.
M.A0 It's not Obama it's the criminal element which drives the government (the Banksters, and multi-billion dollar corporations. US presidents are nothing more than FIGURE HEADS. That's why they come out looking like old men after 8 years of having a gun held to their heads to advance criminal policies they are more than likely morally and ethically against. What they (presidents) learn is that when payback time comes for all of those political donations they accepted to become president it ain't always as honorable as they thought it would be. Thus the gray hair caused by fear from having a gun held to their heads.
[Paul] The easiest or perhaps the only way for US presidents and members of Congress to get elected is to do the bidding of the Israeli lobby which in turn provides the necessary organizing, fund raising and media coverage necessary to win. Thus politicians are obliged to have US fight Israel's enemies, fund its defense.
[Larry] I'll start this post off by saying that I am NOT an Obama supporter. Never have been and never will be one. I'll also say that I care a lot for our military and Armed Forces, especially since I spent 27 years in the Navy and retired in 2008 as a Captain. I do realize that for the most part, our military (except for our Medical Corps of each branch) has never performed this kind of duty, and is probably still unprepared for this mission. All that being said, I also believe that this outbreak is "new business," and is a game changer. Our planet has not seen a disease such as this in modern times, although I guess the Influenza epidemic of 1918-1920 killed between 50-100 million people (between 3-5% of the world's population). This current Ebola outbreak must somehow be stopped, and several of the advanced industrial countries have been committing resources to get started. It will take much, much more, even if risking some of our own military personnel, especially if we can become MUCH more proficient in ensuring their safety through education and rigorous enforcement of TOTAL sanitary measures to prevent the spread to "support personnel." Perhaps my own view is a case of perverted logic; that is possible. But to me, it's a case of either stopping the disease over there, or waiting until it arrives on our own shore, which it invariably will do if we wait long enough. It is no longer a disease that will burn itself out in the small, remote jungle huts and villages. It is already in several major cities across multiple countries and is now skipping over national borders. It will take a major, concerted international effort to contain and conquer this plague, and I have become convinced that we as a country must be one of the bandleaders. Heaven help us if we don't succeed, because the stakes are astronomical, and politics are one of the last things we should consider as we prepare to engage with the international community to join the battle.
M ...How is it that we try to gather an international coalition to fight ISIS, but nothing similar has actually been worked on to contain Ebola through the UN or any one else.. A few quick phone calls and an ambassador of sorts to our allies to get them to send equipment and medical, if that's what it takes. Why no evidence of that? Instead Obama just up and decides to do it all.I still have young relatives in the military and I'm not happy about this Ebola decision with so little coordinated effort. This is another potential problem for the whole world but Obama seems to think that it's all ours. What is with this guy? Now we'll have our people on their own in Liberia helping to build medical shelters with the potentially infected people and train 500 people a week to deal with Ebola patients. Once more our troops on the line. 24
Jeffrey Dahmer Obama does not care about the United States. He wants this country destroyed.-2
[Zach] Says the guy using a serial killers name.
[Jeffrey Dahmer] It is my name, Zach. The ones who raise the biggest stink about my name are usually the first eaten.
