U. S. sends more marines to Liberia
Six U. S. military planes arrived Thursday in Liberia to deliver 100 more marines into the epicentre of the Ebola crisis. There are just over 300 U. S. troops in the country. At a World Bank meeting in Washington, West African leaders pleaded for help in
THE LATEST
Speaking by video conference to the World Bank meeting, Ernest Bai Koroma, president of Sierra Leone, called the epidemic “a tragedy unforeseen in modern times.” He said other countries are not responding fast enough.
In Britain, authorities said they would introduce “enhanced” screening of travellers for Ebola at Heathrow and Gatwick airports and Eurostar rail terminals. Prime Minister David Cameron’s office said passengers arriving from West Africa would be questioned about their travels and contacts. A British businessman who had travelled to Macedonia was suspected of being the first Briton to die from the disease. Macedonian officials said the man had been suffering from fever, vomiting and internal bleeding and his condition had deteriorated rapidly.
Elsewhere, University of Maryland researchers announced the first study of a possible Ebola vaccine in Africa was underway. Scientists say three health care workers in Mali received the experimental shots developed by the U. S. government.
THE TOLL
Ebola has killed at least 3,800 people in West Africa and infected at least 8,000, according to the World Health Organization. The virus has taken an especially devastating toll on health care workers in the hardest- hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, places that already were short on doctors and nurses.
THE U. S. PATIENTS
Two patients with Ebola are being treated in the U. S. A freelance NBC News cameraman arrived in Nebraska this week and an American aid worker has been undergoing treatment in Atlanta since last month. In total, five Americans with Ebola have returned home for treatment.
The Texas sheriff’s deputy who exhibited symptoms of Ebola has tested negative, state health officials said Thursday. Michael Monnig had gone to a health clinic Wednesday, days after he was among a group of deputies who went into the Dallas apartment where a patient from Liberia, Thomas Eric Duncan, had stayed. Duncan died Wednesday.
THE AID
The International Monetary Fund approved $ 130 million in emergency aid to the three hardesthit countries and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation said it would contribute $ 50 million to the emergency response, the group’s largest donation to a humanitarian crisis.