President Barack Obama is expected to reveal plans to increase U.S. aid to diminish the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, The Wall Street Journal has learned.
The president's plan includes more medical supplies, doctors, portable hospitals and training for overwhelmed staff in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the outbreak is centered, sources familiar with the initiative said. An estimated $88 million is needed to fund the offensive, which Obama is expected to urge Congress to approve.
Obama is also expected to involve the U.S. military, which experts say are trained to handle situations of humanitarian crisis.
"We think these measures, this enhanced response, will help us bring this under control," an unnamed Obama administration official told The WSJ. "The military has unique capabilities in terms of logistical capacities, in terms of manpower, in terms of operating in austere environments."
The offensive comes as infectious-disease experts called for an increased global response to the Ebola epidemic that has killed 2,400 people and infected 4,784 people, according to the newspaper.
Liberia and other affected countries are seeing their already fragile health-care systems pushed to the brink, with a lack of available hospital beds forcing patients to return home where the chance of infecting others skyrockets. There is no known cure for Ebola.
Ebola has also killed health-care workers who come in contact patients' bodily fluids, which is how the virus is spread. With U.S military intervention, troops would be able to locate medical staff that can help isolate patients to lesson infection rates, the WSJ reported.
A major concern for the Obama administration is the chance of the Ebola virus mutating, which increases each time someone gets sick, health experts told the newspaper.
Even though a hazardous mutation is unlikely, the government wants to "get involved even more so now to bring this under control," an administration official told the newspaper.
Obama is expected to announce the initiatives on Tuesday during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention base in Atlanta.
