Obama warns nation: Fight Ebola or face long-term risk

WASHINGTON: The US needs to do more to help control West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak to stop it becoming a global crisis that could one day threaten Americans, President Barack Obama said in an interview.
President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Sunday the US military would help in the fight against fast-spreading Ebola in Africa, but said it would be months before the epidemic slows.
Obama told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the outbreak, which has killed 2,100 people in African five countries, was unlikely to spread to the US in the short term.
But he added there could be implications if Washington and other powers did not send urgently needed equipment, public health workers and other supplies to the region.
“If we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there’s the prospect then that the virus mutates. It becomes more easily transmittable,” he said in the interview broadcast on Sunday.
“And then it could be a serious danger to the United States,” he added.
The UN said last week $600 million in supplies were needed.
“We’re going to have to get US military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there, to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world,” Obama said in the interview.
“If we do that, then it’s still going to be months before this problem is controllable in Africa,” he said.
The outbreak that was first identified in Guinea in March has since spread across much of Liberia and Sierra Leone. Cases have also been registered in Nigeria and Senegal. There are no approved Ebola vaccines or treatments.
Obama said that, in its current form, he did not believe Ebola would reach the US, but warned the virus could mutate and become a much greater threat to those outside Africa.
The president argued that the deadly toll of the disease was being exacerbated because of the rudimentary public health infrastructure in Africa.
“We’re going to have to get US military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there, to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“If we do that, then it’s still going to be months before this problem is controllable in Africa,” he said.
But he added, “if we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there’s the prospect then that the virus mutates. “It becomes more easily transmittable. And then it could be a serious danger to the United States.”
The death toll from the Ebola epidemic, which is spreading across West Africa, with Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone the worst hit, has topped 2,000, of nearly 4,000 people who have been infected, according to the World Health Organization.