– Turn the tide –
The official said the Obama administration believes its latest emergency action could help “turn the tide” and slow the spread of the epidemic.
The White House however still believes that there is no realistic threat to the United States from the Ebola epidemic. It considers that any cases that do materialize on the US mainland among travellers would be quickly isolated.
The United States has so far spent $100 million on fighting the Ebola epidemic and the US Agency for International Development plans to allocate another $75 million to increase the number of Ebola treatment units and protective gear for health providers.
In addition, the administration has asked Congress for a further $88 million to fund the fight against Ebola in the coming months.
The money is contained in a short term bill to fund the government until mid-December which could pass Congress as soon as this week.
More than 100 CDC workers are already at work in West Africa, and many more staff are coordinating their work at the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.
It was unclear how many of the new US government personnel being sent to West Africa would be deployed in direct contact with patients. The number however appears limited.
Obama first said last week that he was going to use a major military deployment to step up US efforts to fight the Ebola epidemic.
His remarks, and a recent YouTube message from the president offering guidance to the people of Africa on halting infections, highlight increasing White House concern about the national security and humanitarian implications of the rapid spread of the disease.
The Pentagon had already announced it would send a 25-bed field hospital Liberia.
The new effort will also see the United States construct 17 Ebola treatment centers with 100 beds in each.
Officials said meanwhile that the effort to train 500 health workers per week to meet the shortage in demand in affected nations would go on for at least six months.
The US effort is intended to control the epidemic at its source in West Africa, blunt the social and economic cost of the disease and to repair regional health infrastructure.
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