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Obama Urges World Powers to Bolster Ebola Response Obama Urges World Powers to Bolster Ebola Response
(about 4 hours later)
ATLANTA — President Obama on Tuesday challenged world powers to ramp up the global response to the Ebola outbreak that is ravaging three West African countries, warning that unless health care workers, medical equipment and treatment centers are deployed quickly, the disease could take hundreds of thousands of lives. ATLANTA — President Obama on Tuesday challenged world powers to accelerate the global response to the Ebola outbreak that is ravaging West Africa, warning that unless health care workers, medical equipment and treatment centers were swiftly deployed, the disease could take hundreds of thousands of lives.
“This epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better,” Mr. Obama said at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he met with doctors who had just returned from West Africa. But “right now, the world still has the opportunity to save lives.” “This epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better,” Mr. Obama said here at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he met with doctors who had just returned from West Africa. But “right now, the world still has the opportunity to save lives,” he said.
He said “the world is looking” to the United States to lead the fight against Ebola. “This is a responsibility that we embrace,” he said. But he called on other nations to respond as well. Even as the president announced a major American deployment to Liberia and Senegal of medicine, equipment and 3,000 military personnel, global health officials said that time was running out and that they had weeks, not months, to act. They said that although the American contribution was on a scale large enough to make a difference, a coordinated assault in Africa from other Western powers was essential to bringing the virus under control.
The American response includes the deployment of some 3,000 American military personnel, including doctors, to Liberia and Senegal to wage war on a virus that so far has outstripped meager efforts to contain it. The Pentagon is to build 17 treatment centers of 100 beds each in Liberia, the country hardest hit so far in the epidemic, with five of them in the capital, Monrovia, the first large city to have an outbreak of Ebola. Administration officials said they urgently needed stronger responses from Britain and France, two countries that, along with the United States, have colonial ties to the three hardest-hit African countries, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. So far France has sent $13 million to Guinea for two tons of medical equipment and the construction of medical centers, and $15.5 million and 24 doctors to Senegal and Ivory Coast, other former French colonies. British troops, the government said last week, are headed to Sierra Leone, a former British colony, to build and staff a 63-bed facility near the capital, Freetown.
Administration officials said they urgently needed strong responses from Britain and France, two countries that have colonial ties to the three hardest-hit African countries. Liberia was colonized by freed American slaves beginning in 1822; the British colonized Sierra Leone, and the French have longtime ties to Guinea. “Everyone realizes that no one group or one country or one organization is going to be able to tackle this,” Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank and an expert in infectious diseases, said in an interview. He praised the American effort as “extremely encouraging,” but said it remained unclear how the United States would coordinate its effort with relief groups. “This is all being put together on the fly,” he said.
A French official said that France on Sunday sent an additional 10 million euros, or $13 million, to Guinea for two tons of medical equipment and the construction of medical centers. The French also sent 12 million euros, or $15.5 million, and 24 doctors to Senegal and Ivory Coast. British troops, the government said last week, are headed to Sierra Leone to build and staff a 63-bed facility near the capital, Freetown. In Washington, New York and Geneva, health experts expressed astonishment and alarm at the virus’s rapid spread.
In Washington, Beth Bell, the director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a Senate hearing that while Ebola did not currently pose a significant public health threat to the United States, “there is a window of opportunity to control the spread of this disease, but that window is closing.” “The pace of the disease and also its impact have taken our breath away — it’s been that massive,” said Shanelle Hall, director of the supply division at Unicef, which has sent about 550 tons of supplies to West Africa in the past several weeks and has plans to almost triple that amount by the beginning of next month. “We hope other governments also come in with commensurate levels of support.”
Ms. Bell underscored the urgency of working to contain and manage the outbreak, explaining that the virus was “ferocious and spreading exponentially.” She warned that “we could be dealing with it for years to come” and that “speed and scale is of the essence” in the crisis. Senior United Nations officials said in Geneva that cases of the disease were rising at an almost exponential rate, with the number of reported cases now at 4,985, including 2,461 deaths. Half of the infections, according to Dr. Bruce Aylward, an assistant director general of the World Health Organization, occurred in the past 21 days, underscoring the acceleration of the outbreak. “We don’t know where the numbers are going with this,” Mr. Aylward said at a news conference.
Lawmakers from both parties expressed a willingness to approve the $88 million Mr. Obama has already requested from Congress to help fight the disease — $30 million would go to the C.D.C., and $58 million would help the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority develop an antiviral drug, as well as potential vaccines. He warned that the rapid spread of the disease was “going to require a much faster escalation of the response if we are to beat the escalation of the virus.”
“We must take the dangerous, deadly threat of Ebola as seriously as we take ISIS,” said Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the top Republican on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, repeating the sentence for emphasis. “The spread of this disease deserves a more urgent response from our country and other countries around the world than it’s now getting. This is one of the most explosive, deadly epidemics in modern time if we do not do what we know how to do to control it.” Mr. Obama echoed those words. “We can’t dawdle on this one,” the president said. “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 had not seen before.”
In Geneva, senior United Nations officials said cases of the disease were rising at an almost exponential rate, with the number of reported cases climbing to 4,985, including 2,461 deaths. Half of the infections, according to Bruce Aylward, an assistant director general of the World Health Organization, occurred in the past 21 days, underscoring the acceleration of the outbreak. “We don’t know where the numbers are going with this,” Mr. Aylward said at a news conference in Geneva. But just how fast the American military can build 17 treatment centers of 100 beds each in Liberia, as planned, is still in question. Liberian officials say 1,000 beds are needed there in the next week alone to contain the disease. American military officials cautioned that they were not close to getting that number of beds up and running and said it would take time — perhaps as long as two weeks — before personnel arrived to begin setting up the first treatment centers.
He warned that the rapid spread of the disease “is going to require a much faster escalation of the response if we are to beat the escalation of the virus.” Ken Isaacs, a vice president of the aid group Samaritan’s Purse, which works in West Africa, said that building the treatment centers was a good idea, but warned that there could be 100,000 Ebola cases or more in Liberia by the end of the year.
Just how fast the American military can build the treatment centers in Monrovia is still in question. Liberian officials say that 1,000 beds are needed in Liberia in the next week alone to contain the disease. But American military officials cautioned that it would take time — perhaps as much as two weeks — before personnel arrive to begin setting up the first treatment centers. “Where are they going to go?” Mr. Isaacs said. “It’s too late. Nobody’s going to build 100,000 beds.”
The promise of a ramped-up American response “could change the trajectory of the spread of the disease — if that response is fast,” said Steven Radelet, a former development expert at both the Treasury and State Departments in the Clinton and Obama administrations who now advises the Liberian government on economic matters. “But the question is, how fast can they turn this to action?” Defense officials said that once constructed, the treatment centers would be turned over to Liberia and staffed by local and international health care providers.
Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that the military was setting up a staging base in Senegal, where no one has contracted Ebola at this point. A large contingent of American military personnel will be there; most of the rest will be in Liberia to provide logistics, training and construction support, but not to direct patient care. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that the military was setting up a staging base in Senegal, where no one has contracted Ebola at this point. A large contingent of American military personnel will be there. Most of the rest will be in Liberia to provide logistics, training and construction support, but not to direct patient care.
Before leaving the White House for Atlanta on Tuesday morning, Mr. Obama met with Dr. Kent Brantly, the American physician with Samaritan’s Purse who contracted Ebola when he was treating patients in Liberia.
In Liberia, half a year after the start of the outbreak, the authorities remain incapable of carrying out the most basic steps needed to stop the spread of Ebola, including picking up the dead and isolating potentially infectious people. In the capital, bodies are often left in houses and neighborhoods for up to three days before they are taken away by burial teams. Because of a shortage of ambulances, families with visibly sick relatives take taxis to full treatment centers, where they are often turned away.In Liberia, half a year after the start of the outbreak, the authorities remain incapable of carrying out the most basic steps needed to stop the spread of Ebola, including picking up the dead and isolating potentially infectious people. In the capital, bodies are often left in houses and neighborhoods for up to three days before they are taken away by burial teams. Because of a shortage of ambulances, families with visibly sick relatives take taxis to full treatment centers, where they are often turned away.
As Ebola spread through the capital last month, Liberia’s government initially asserted control over the fight against the virus, even placing an entire slum in Monrovia under quarantine, against international advice. But facing a deteriorating situation on the ground and increasing pressure by politicians and the news media to “outsource” the battle, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wrote letters to Mr. Obama and the leaders of China, Russia and several other countries asking for direct help.As Ebola spread through the capital last month, Liberia’s government initially asserted control over the fight against the virus, even placing an entire slum in Monrovia under quarantine, against international advice. But facing a deteriorating situation on the ground and increasing pressure by politicians and the news media to “outsource” the battle, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf wrote letters to Mr. Obama and the leaders of China, Russia and several other countries asking for direct help.
Because of Liberia’s historical ties to the United States, a visible American military presence would not draw the kind of backlash it would elsewhere in Africa. Because of Liberia’s historical ties to the United States — it was founded by freed American slaves in 1822 — a visible American military presence would not draw the kind of backlash it would elsewhere in Africa.
On Tuesday, many Liberians in Monrovia welcomed news of greater American involvement. “It will help us,” said the Rev. Otis Borbor, the pastor at the Lighthouse Assemblies of God church in Caldwell, one of Monrovia’s most affected neighborhoods. “That’s what we were praying for, the pastors. We were praying to God that he may send people to rescue us and carry help to the country. So when we heard that, we were happy.”On Tuesday, many Liberians in Monrovia welcomed news of greater American involvement. “It will help us,” said the Rev. Otis Borbor, the pastor at the Lighthouse Assemblies of God church in Caldwell, one of Monrovia’s most affected neighborhoods. “That’s what we were praying for, the pastors. We were praying to God that he may send people to rescue us and carry help to the country. So when we heard that, we were happy.”
A British official on Tuesday said that a 62-bed hospital announced previously for Sierra Leone was all that was officially planned right now. He said that Britain would most likely do more, including setting up a lot of independent isolation units where people exposed to Ebola could spend the 21-day incubation periods.
But, with Prime Minister David Cameron preoccupied with other issues, namely the Scottish independence vote on Thursday, no plans have been finalized.