September 17, 2014 -- Updated 1311 GMT (2111 HKT)
President Obama turns his attention to Ebola on Tuesday, announcing new
U.S. steps to combat the growing epidemic in West Africa. FULL STORY
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WHAT IF EBOLA WAS AIRBORNE?
Obama: U.S. ready to take the lead in Ebola fight
September 17, 2014 -- Updated 0058 GMT (0858 HKT)
U.S. steps up efforts in Ebola fight
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Doctor who survived Ebola says: "It is a fire straight from the pit of hell"
- Obama says "the world is looking to" the U.S. for leadership on Ebola
- U.S. personnel in West Africa could increase by 3,000
- Obama to call on Congress to approve $88 million more
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.
Obama: Ebola threat could become 'global'
WHO: West Africa can't keep up with Ebola
'Not 1 bed' available for Ebola patients
Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa
"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.
Public health campaigns will be broadcast through existing networks in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
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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.
Nongovernmental organizations that have been fighting this outbreak since its start reacted positively to Obama's announcement.
"The multifaceted
response to the Ebola crisis announced today by President Obama is what
we have been hoping for and what is needed in Liberia and West Africa,"
said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA.
Two of the three
American workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia and were evacuated to
the United States for treatment work for SIM.
SIM and other
organizations such as Doctors Without Borders that have been working on
the Ebola outbreak since the beginning have been asking for additional
international help for months.
"Three things are vital
right now: More beds and equipment, more trained medical professionals,
and more training of Liberians and West Africans," Johnson said. "This
current plan addresses these desperate needs."
One of the doctors who
had been working with SIM's clinic in Liberia when he became infected
with the virus testified Tuesday in front of a joint hearing in Congress
to look at ways to stop Ebola.
Dr. Kent Brantly
urged Congress to provide the extra funds to fight the outbreak.
Earlier in the day he met with President Obama, who told him about the
expanded U.S. efforts.
Brantly said he thanked the President, and urged Congress to back this plan up with "immediate action."
"As a survivor, it is
not only my privilege, but it is my duty to speak out on behalf of the
people of West Africa who continue to face unspeakable devastation
because of this horrific disease," Brantly said.
He told the story about a patient named Francis who he believes may have been saved had the world acted sooner.
The patient became infected after carrying a neighbor sick with Ebola to a taxi to get him to a hospital.
"If someone had gone
alongside Francis and given him a little education and given him the
equipment he needed, his family would have a father," Brantly said.
Instead his patient died and the world lost "this good Samaritan."
Brantly went on to respond to the analogy some have used to describe Ebola as a fire burning out of control.
He warned, it is a "fire. It is a fire straight from the pit of hell."
"We cannot fool
ourselves into thinking that the vast Atlantic Ocean will protect us
from the flames of this fire," Brantly said.
Move quickly, he urged, as it is "the only way to keep entire nations from being reduced to ashes."
Could the virus mutate?
There is also a concern about the possibility that the virus could mutate into an even more dangerous form.
Ebola currently
transmits only though contact with bodily fluids; a mutation that allows
the virus to spread through the air would pose a catastrophic threat to
people worldwide, health experts say.
White House press
secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that there was still a "very low"
likelihood the Ebola virus could mutate in a way that threatens the
United States.
"Right now, the risk of
an Ebola outbreak in the United States is very low," he said, "but that
risk would only increase if there were not a robust response on the part
of the United States."
The President noted a
number of precautionary steps that are being taken in the United States
to prevent the disease from spreading here.
The government has
stepped up screening at West African airports. It has increased
education for flight crews to teach them what to watch for with people
who may be sick. It has worked with hospitals and health care workers to
prepare them in case there is a domestic Ebola problem.
Will it be enough?
Ebola is more than a health threat to West Africa; it could become a "major humanitarian crisis," according to United Nations Under-Secretary-General Valerie Amos, if it is not stopped soon enough.
The United Nations said that many millions more will be needed to fight the outbreak. U.N. leaders estimate they need $1 billion to fight the epidemic, with about half needed for the worst-hit country, Liberia.
Political systems and infrastructure are fragile in the countries where the virus is concentrated. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are still rebuilding their economies after suffering through years of civil wars.
"Now their capacity to
deliver the necessities of daily life for their people is on the brink
of collapse," Amos said. "The Ebola outbreak poses a serious threat to
their post-conflict recovery."
More people are believed
to have died in these countries from secondary diseases like malaria
and tuberculosis and from chronic illnesses and pregnancies with
complications than from Ebola because the health care systems are so
strained.
Heavy rain adds to the risk of waterborne diseases like malaria.
Food security has also
become a problem. Quarantines keep workers from their jobs and have
slowed the delivery of food to certain areas, according to the U.N.
"We must act now if we want to avoid greater humanitarian consequences in future," Amos said.
CNN's Josh Levs, Greg Botelho and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report.
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