Ebola Virus Outbreak & Symptoms 2014: President Obama Pledges 3,000 Troops, $763 Million to Fight Disease
U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday committed 3,000 troops and more than $700 million to help countries in West Africa that have been afflicted with the worst Ebola outbreak in history.
The U.S. proposal includes more doctors and health care workers, portable hospitals, laboratories and other medical facilities and improved training for first responders to the disease, according to a report from USA Today.
The plan is estimated to cost $763 million across six months, said officials familiar with the plan. The U.S. has already donated about $175 million of that sum to fight the disease. Obama announced the plan Tuesday during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Obama's proposal will include the training of about 500 health care professionals each week and the construction of as many as 17 facilities and hospitals, each with 100 beds. U.S. aid money will also go toward the distribution of home health kits and the training of local populations in best practices in fighting Ebola.
The U.S. also has pledged 3,000 troops to be deployed in West Africa to lead the project, which has been called Operation United Assistance and will be conducted in accord with the governments of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
The military will work to implement the plan through a command base in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, which has been one of the areas most infected by Ebola.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Obama thinks that "making an investment here early is critical to trying to snuff out this problem before it becomes a much more widespread problem."
The latest reports out of West Africa from the World Health Organization say that Ebola has killed more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases, according to Reuters. The afflicted West African countries have struggled to deal with the outbreak because of a lack of resources.
Health officials have said that the U.S. likely is safe from the threat of a domestic Ebola outbreak, especially if the spread is slowed soon.
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