WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is
ramping up its response to West Africa's Ebola crisis, preparing to assign
3,000 U.S. military personnel to the afflicted region to supply medical and
logistical support to overwhelmed local health care systems and to boost the
number of beds needed to isolate and treat victims of the epidemic.
President Barack Obama planned to announce the
stepped-up effort Tuesday during a visit to the federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention in Atlanta amid alarm that the outbreak could spread and
that the deadly virus could mutate into a more easily transmitted disease.
The new U.S. muscle comes after appeals from the
region and from aid organizations for a heightened U.S. role in combatting the
outbreak blamed for more than 2,200 deaths.
Administration officials said Monday that the new initiatives aim to:
— Train as many as 500 health care workers a week.
— Erect 17 heath care facilities in the region of
100 beds each.
— Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia,
Liberia, to coordinate between U.S. and international relief efforts.
— Provide home health care kits to hundreds of
thousands of households, including 50,000 that the U.S. Agency for
International Development will deliver to Liberia this week.
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