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‘It doesn’t make sense’: Concerns over enlisting DoD in Ebola response

The Obama administration’s decision to enlist the Defense Department in responding to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is raising concerns that the task is pulling the already-stretched military away from other missions, including vital counter-terrorism operations.

According to a senior military official, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said at a recent meeting: "The Department of Defense's number one priority is combating Ebola."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/09/14/it-doesnt-make-sense-concerns-over-tasking-dod-with-ebola-mission-amid/

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President Barack Obama to discuss US response to the Ebola epidemic

Sep 13 2014 - 6:10am by Charles Omedo - thewestsidestory.net

Come next week, the United States president, Barack Obama will get personal briefing on the Ebola virus situation in West Africa from medical experts working on the epidemic, and he will also use the opportunity to lay out his government’s response plan for combating the deadly epidemic.

Four American doctors and nurses have contracted the fatal disease but were lucky to have survived after being flown back to the US for treatments with experimental drugs and blood serums. The disease has however killed over 2,550 victims according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and over 4,300 currently infected with the epidemic in West Africa.

http://thewestsidestory.net/2014/09/13/16496/president-barack-obama-discuss-us-response-ebola-epidemic/

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American Ebola Survivor Gives Blood to Infected Health-Care Colleague

Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter - THURSDAY, Sept. 11, 2014 (HealthDay News)

An American medical missionary who survived infection with Ebola has donated blood to a colleague who's struggling to fight his own infection with the often deadly virus.

Dr. Rick Sacra was given blood transfusions from Dr. Kent Brantly last Friday, shortly after arriving at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The 51-year-old Sacra has also been given an experimental drug and other treatments, hospital officials said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/topics/HealthDay691687_20140911_American_Ebola_Survivor_Gives_Blood_to_Infected_Health-Care_Colleague.html

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As Ebola grows out of control, WHO pleads for more health workers

World Health Organization (WHO) Director general Margaret Chan (L) pauses next to Roberto Morales Ojeda, Minister of Public Health of Cuba, during a news conference on support to Ebola affected countries at the WHO headquarters in Geneva September 12, 2014. REUTERS/Pierre AlbouyBy Kate Kelland and Tom Miles - LONDON/GENEVA Fri Sep 12, 2014 4:20pm BST - reuters.com

The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa is growing faster than authorities can manage them, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, renewing a call for health workers from around the world to go to the region to help.

As the death toll rose to more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases, WHO director general Margaret Chan told a news conference in Geneva the vast nature of the outbreak -- particularly in the three hardest-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- required a massive emergency response.

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Global response to Ebola marked by lack of coordination and leadership, experts say

September 11 - washingtonpost.com

More than six months into the worst Ebola outbreak in history, there is no clear sense of who is leading the international response, how funds are being collected and disbursed, which organizations are providing equipment and personnel, and when any of these efforts will make a significant difference in slowing the epidemic in West Africa.

The confusion and lack of coordination have delayed shipments of desperately needed supplies; some of those being pledged now won’t arrive for months. For example, a 62-bed facility that the British government on Monday promised to deliver will take eight weeks to be operational; the 25-bed field hospital the Pentagon has offered will take at least a month before it is up and running.

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Guinean who brought Ebola to Senegal recovered, to return

© Thomson Reuters 2014 All rights reserved

Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:39pm GMT

* Student fully recovered and resting ahead of return home

* Senegal says no other suspected cases in country

* Senegal warns against other Ebola cases seeking treating care (Recasts with fresh comments from Senegal health minister)

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, Sept 10 (Reuters) - A Guinean student who brought Ebola to Senegal has recovered from the disease and is resting before he is expected to return home, Senegal's health minister said on Wednesday.

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Official: U.S. military’s response to Ebola hampered by lack of expertise with virus

By Lena H. Sun, The Washington Post, September 9 at 8:47 PM

Despite President Obama’s call for increased involvement of the U.S. military in the fight against the rapidly escalating Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the United States is hamstrung by a lack of military medical personnel with expertise dealing with the deadly virus, a top official in charge of coordinating the U.S. response said Tuesday.

“There isn’t an existing cadre of people who have experience in treating this epidemic other than” the aid group Doctors Without Borders, said Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

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African Union To Send Medical Support Teams To Fight Ebola

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Nigeria Confirms New Ebola Cases, Boy Killed In Liberia Quarantine Zone

By By BASHIR ADIGUN and JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH - Updated: 08/23/2014 1:00 pm EDT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Two alarming new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria, widening the circle of people sickened beyond the immediate group of caregivers who treated a dying airline passenger in one of Africa's largest cities.

The outbreak also continues to spread elsewhere in West Africa, with 142 more cases recorded, bringing the new total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Most of the new cases are in Liberia, where the government was delivering donated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/nigeria-ebola-quarantine_n_5699062.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

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Ivory Coast closes western borders over Ebola threat

People walk past health workers wearing protective masks and gloves at the Felix Houphouet Boigny international airport in Abidjan August 12, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Luc GnagoABIDJAN - Reuters - Sat Aug 23, 2014 7:48am EDT

(Reuters) - Ivory Coast has closed its land borders with Ebola-affected West African neighbours Guinea and Liberia in an attempt to prevent the world's deadliest outbreak of the virus from spreading onto its territory, the government announced.

A number of African nations have defied advice from the World Health Organization (WHO) and put in place restrictions on travel to and from the countries where Ebola has appeared, which also include Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

The Philippines on Saturday ordered 115 troops to return home from peacekeeping operations in Liberia due to the outbreak there.

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/23/us-health-ebola-ivorycoast-idUSKBN0GN0AL20140823

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