Barack Obama calls for faster response in Ebola battle
US President Barack Obama said yesterday that not enough was being done to tackle the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa and called for more international aid.
US President Barack Obama said yesterday that not enough was being done to tackle the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa and called for more international aid.
"We are not moving fast enough. We are not doing enough," Obama told a meeting at the United Nations on the health crisis. "Right now, everybody has the best of intentions, but people are not putting the kinds of resources necessary to put a stop to this epidemic."
The meeting was called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ramp up the international response to the world's worst Ebola epidemic, which has left close to 3,000 dead in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Health systems in the three countries have been overwhelmed and the UN has made repeated urgent appeals for more doctors, nurses, medical equipment and supplies to be sent to West Africa.
"The world can and must stop Ebola now," Ban told the meeting. "Today, it is time for the international community to step up."
Sierra Leone yesterday took the drastic step of putting more than a million people in five districts under quarantine - the largest open-ended lockdown in the Ebola outbreak.
The US is sending 3,000 troops to Liberia to help health workers battle the contagion and has mobilised its experts from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to help beat back the virus.
It is feared that cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could rocket to 1.4 million by January.
