Most U.S. troops will return from Ebola fight by end of April

UPDATE: Obama says US has ‘risen to the challenge’ of fighting Ebola

ASSOCIATED PRESS  BY Edith Lederer in New York and Josh Lederman in Washington               Feb. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama heralded a “new phase in the fight” against Ebola on Wednesday and said progress against the outbreak in West Africa will allow the U.S. to withdraw nearly all American troops sent to Liberia last fall.

He cautioned the mission was not over, and he set an ambitious goal of eliminating the disease. “We have risen to the challenge,” he said at the White House. “Our focus now is getting to zero.”

Obama said only 100 of the 2,800 troops sent to Liberia will remain there after April 30. About 1,500 have returned home.

...Earlier in the day, he met with philanthropists and foundation leaders who had supported the fight against the outbreak, which had threatened to spiral out of control and fostered fears in the U.S. and elsewhere beyond West Africa.

At the height of the outbreak, Liberia was experiencing 119 confirmed Ebola cases per week. This week there were only three. But Guinea reported a sharp increase with 65 new confirmed cases compared with 39 the week before. Sierra Leone reported 76 new confirmed cases.

“What we’re seeing in Guinea and in Sierra Leone is that the new cases are not cases that are showing up on known contacts lists,” said J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president and director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The transmission is coming from somewhere else and we don’t know where that somewhere else is.”

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WASHINGTON POST by  Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin                                        Feb. 11, 2015
Washington --All but 100 of the 1,300 U.S. troops who are assisting the fight against Ebola in West Africa will return home by April 30, the White House announced Tuesday night.

U.S. Marines arrive to take part in Operation United Assistance on Oct. 9, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia. Some 90 Marines arrived on KC-130 transport planes and MV-22 Ospreys to support the American effort to contain the Ebola epidemic. (John Moore/Getty Images)

The White House cited “the improved epidemiological outlook” and said that the remaining Defense Department personnel would be “leveraging” relations with military forces­ in Liberia and other regional allies and help strengthen measures for disease prevention.

While the United States is withdrawing its military personnel, it will continue to fund thousands of civilians — mostly African nationals — to continue fighting the virus’s spread in West Africa. There are roughly 10,000 civilians funded in part or in whole by the federal government, according to administration officials, and that number will remain steady or even increase.

The announcement coincides with events to be held at the White House on Wednesday, when President Obama will meet with six of the eight American Ebola survivors, including doctors Kent Brantley and Craig Spencer and the two nurses infected with the disease in Dallas....

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