Obama to announce boost in U.S. aid for Ebola response

President Obama, facing criticism that the U.S. and other countries have been slow to respond to the deadly Ebola outbreak, plans to send additional medical aid to West Africa, according to a White House official.

The move, to be announced Tuesday when the president travels to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, comes amid rising alarm that the outbreak is overwhelming local health systems and the international aid response.

The president will announce a “ramping up” of U.S. assistance, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said, but he did not give further details.

That additional help would come on top of a Defense Department announcement last week that it would send a 25-bed, $22-million hospital to Liberia to help care for sickened medical workers there.

World Health Organization Director General Dr. Margaret Chan issued a dire warning Friday that cases of the disease are rising faster than health officials are containing them, raising the prospect that the epidemic will get far worse before it gets better.

WHO officials estimate the death toll at around 2,400 people out of 4,784 suspected and confirmed cases.

But many experts believe far more people have been sickened. And the outbreak continues to overwhelm hospitals, clinics and health centers in the three countries at the center of the outbreak – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

There are also worrying signs that the outbreak is spreading in Nigeria, as well.

Chan issued an urgent call last week for other countries to step up aid and send more medical personnel to the region.

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