Calling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a potential threat to global security, President Barack Obama is ordering 3,000 U.S. military personnel to the stricken region amid worries that the financial as well as human cost of the outbreak is rapidly spiraling out of control.
Obama also called on other countries to quickly supply more helpers, supplies and money.
“If the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people affected, with profound economic, political and security implications for all of us,” Obama said Tuesday after briefings at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University.
“It’s a potential threat to global security if these countries break down,” Obama said, speaking of the hardest-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. At least 2,400 people have died, with Liberia bearing the brunt.
Obama outlined new steps being taken by the U.S. to contain the outbreak, which he said is getting worse. They include sending military personnel, training health care workers and erecting health care facilities in Liberia.
(AP)
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One Response
Viruses enjoy wars. Public health breaks down. The viruses get a chance to spread. To meet new people. And the doctors who would normally treat the disease are otherwise occupied (or have fled the fighting). The countries with serious Ebola problems are ones that have no, or have recently had, disasterous civil wars.
It is very unlikely to match the Influenze epidemic facilitated (if not caused) by World War I which killed something like 3% of the Earth’s population (100 million people). The rich countries will act to keep it from spreading, and even those poor countries with functioning governments can and have been easily controlling it. Liberia just finished a horrific civil war and is in no position to deal with anything at the moment.