US Sending Troops to Help Tackle Ebola Virus

The United States announced that it would send 3000 troops to help take on the Ebola virus outbreak as part of an excelerated response, including a major deployment in Liberia where the epidemic is growing the fastest.

President Barack Obama is slated to speak formally on the plan later today, which will include plans to build 17 treatment centers, train thousands of healthcare workers, and establish a military control center for coordination. The treatment centers are expected have 100 beds each and be built as soon as possible.

The US plan also focuses on training. A site will be established where military medical personnel will teach 500 healthcare workers per week for 6 months or more how to provide care to Ebola patients.

President Obama's administration has requested an additional $88 million from Congress to fight the Ebola outbreak, including $58 million to speed up production of the ZMapp experimental antiviral drug and 2 Ebola vaccine candidates.

Officials said the Department of Defense had requested to reallocate $500 million in funds from fiscal 2014 to help cover the costs of the humanitarian mission.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said it needs foreign medical teams with 500 to 600 experts as well as at least 10,000 local health workers.

In addition, Cuba and China have said they will send medical staff to Sierra Leone. Cuba will deploy 165 people in October, while China is sending a mobile laboratory with 59 staff members to speed up testing for the disease. It already has 115 staff and a Chinese-funded hospital in place.

Liberia appealed for help from the United States last week. A UN official in Liberia said that her colleagues had resorted to telling locals to use plastic bags to combat the virus for lack of any other protective equipment.

President Obama, who has called the epidemic a national security crisis, has faced criticism for not doing more to stem the outbreak, which the WHO said last week has killed more than 2400 people of the 4784 individuals in West Africa who have been infected.

For more on this, click here.—Kerri Fitzgerald