Marc September 16, 2014 as the day the United States declared all-out war on the Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa.
As President Barack Obama said in remarks he made today to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, the world is looking to the US for 'help. "It is a responsibility that we embrace," said Obama. "We are ready to take leadership on this to provide the kinds of capabilities that only America has, and mobilize the world so that only America can do. this is what we are doing as we speak. "
at the same time, Obama spoke in Atlanta, the uS Senate held an Ebola audience who presented the testimony of senior officials of public health and can -being the most famous survivor of the world Ebola, Kent Brantly, who fell ill with the disease while treating patients in Liberia in July. "We must take the dangerous threat of deadly Ebola outbreak as seriously as we take ISIS [Islamic State in Iraq and Syria]," said Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
The centerpiece of what Obama called "a significant increase in our response" is in fact the US military, which in cooperation with the Liberian government will put up a command center in Monrovia run by US army Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams. As explained by Obama, the army will set up a command and control, logistics and engineering support for civil society organizations working in the region. "Our armed services are better that any organization on Earth," Obama said.
The US response will focus on providing beds for patients who Ebola are almost non-existent in Liberia-isolation areas to keep people when Ebola treatment units not to space, more trained health care workers, an airlift to move people and equipment in West Africa faster, and kits to help families with infected people in the house at the time of care for a sick person and protect themselves against infection. "We can not dawdle on this one," said Obama, who urged global communities to dramatically step response, too. "International organizations just have to go faster than they up to this point. "(this fact sheet explains the details of the response of the United States overhauled.)
in the 3-hour-long Senate hearing-which, an unusual move, was organized jointly by a subcommittee of the appropriations and the health Committee, education, labor and pensions, topics ranged from financing the efforts of the need for a greater sense of urgency, health public and scientists, and personal experiences issues. Beth Bell, who heads CDC's National Center for emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases, described the epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as "fierce and spread exponential, "so severely crippling the health care systems in some places that malaria can not be treated and infants can be safely delivered.
report the current situation of the World Health Organization estimated that there were nearly 5,000 cases, almost half of them died, but Bell said CDC estimates that "the actual numbers would be two to three times higher." She pointed out that we have the tools to end this epidemic, but the window of opportunity closes. "If we do not react now to stop the Ebola virus we could be dealing with it for years to come affect larger areas of Africa," she said.
The senators asked repeatedly Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases, if the Ebola virus could mutate into a more dangerous form and even spread in the air. "We see that carefully," Fauci said. He explained that, as all the RNA viruses, one that causes Ebola made many mistakes when it copies itself, but most of these mutations do nothing. "It is an unusual situation where a mutation will completely change the way a virus spreads," said Fauci, stressing that it was impossible, but very unlikely. "What is likely is that if we do not do what we do now, in the direction of a main ramp of infection control capacity, including what we mean to get heavily involved in all military things they bring to the table ... it will get worse, "Fauci said. "A virus does not replicate can not mutate."
The Ministry of Defense of the United States hopes to reschedule $ 500 million to Ebola efforts. The Obama administration has asked Congress to pass a continuing resolution that will give $ 30 million dollars more to the CDC for use until 11 December, and $ 58 million to the Department of Health and Human Services to support the development of experimental vaccines and treatments. The continuing resolution passed the House of Representatives, and Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who chaired the hearing of the Joint Committee, said he hopes the Senate to pass the "the next day or two." But Harkin and others stressed that more money will be needed for the budget for year 2015. "I hate to say this, but Ebola will not be defeated within 10 weeks of the continuing resolution."
Harkin and other senators were surprised by the lack of a clear leader for American global effort against Ebola. "I'm a little surprised to see that," said Harkin. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said this was a matter that the Senate should take with Obama. "We need someone points," said Mikulski. "If we wanted to meet on responsible person who would on person in charge?"
The hearing ended with testimony and questions Brantly, an American physician with Samaritan's purse was airlifted to Monrovia to Atlanta for care state-of-the-art and is well today. Brantly, who met Obama in the Oval Office this morning, spoke of the many people he treated who have died of Ebola virus and the urgent need for other countries health workers to go help in Africa Where is.
"Many, including one of the senators today, used the analogy of a fire out of control to describe this epidemic of unprecedented Ebola," said Brantly. "Indeed, there is a fire. It is a straight line to the fire pit of hell. We can not deceive us into thinking that the great moat from the Atlantic Ocean to protect us against the flames of this fire. instead, we must act quickly and immediately to deliver the promises that were made and to be open to innovative practices interventions. this is the only way to keep whole nations to be reduced to ashes "
* Ebola files :. Given the current Ebola epidemic, unprecedented in terms of the number of people killed and the rapid geographic spread, science and Science Translational Medicine made a collection of research articles and news on the viral disease available for researchers and the general public.
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