Obama administration to ramp up response to West Africa’s Ebola crisis

The Obama administration, in a ramped up  response to West Africa's Ebola crisis, is preparing to assign 3,000 US military personnel to the afflicted region to assist with medical supplies and logistical support to local health care systems 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 today during a visit to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta amid as signs emerge that the outbreak could spread as also the possibility emerges that the deadly virus could mutate into a more easily transmitted disease.

The new US effort comes after appeals from the region and from aid organisations for a heightened US role in taking counter measures against the contagion that had taken a toll 2,200 lives.

According to administration officials, the new initiatives aimed to:

• Train around 500 health care workers a week. - Set up 17 heath care facilities in the region of 100 beds each.
• Set up a joint command headquartered in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, to coordinate between US and international relief efforts.

Meanwhile, DPA reported that president Obama called the outbreak a national security threat and planned to travel to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to meet with experts working to combat the disease. US military engineers would in coordination with  local governments build 17 clinics with 100 beds each to care for Ebola patients amid a shortage of facilities in the hardest-hit nations of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to senior administration officials who spoke to reporters ahead of Obama's trip.

The US would also train up to 500 healthcare workers a week for at least six months in how to respond to the epidemic and distribute thousands of home healthcare kits to educate the public about Ebola and provide disinfectant, sanitizer and medication, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

The Africa Command of the Department of Defence would set up a joint command in Monrovia to oversee US and international efforts and would devote around 3,000 troops to the aid effort, according to officials.

The additional US commitment would come in addition to $175 million, Washington had already devoted to aid such as health supplies and 100 CDC experts assisting in Africa.

Obama would seek additional funds from Congress, and the Department of Defence plans to reallocate around $500 million dollars from elsewhere in its budget to fund the anti-Ebola operations.