A Marines contingent was en route to Liberia on Thursday as health officials continued to press their case that the best way to keep the deadly virus from sweeping across the U.S. is to stop the outbreak in West Africa.
Two planes were scheduled to land later Thursday at an airfield outside the Liberian capital of Monrovia to 'support the whole-of-government effort to contain Ebola,' U.S. Army Capt. Carter Langston said.
The whole--of-government approach -- including U.S. troops and medical personnel on the ground in Africa, tighter security at select U.S. airports and an alert medical community across the U.S. -- has been stressed by U.S. officials.
'As long as Ebola continues to spread in Africa, we can't make the risk zero here,' Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control, said at a press conference late Wednesday.
As the deadly virus rages in West Africa, Nigeria is now officially Ebola-free. The CDC is sending researchers to Africa's most populous country to study how they were able to contain the disease. VPC
The virus has killed more than 3,800 people in Africa. On Wednesday, Dallas resident Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, became the first U.S. victim. Duncan had returned to the U.S. from Liberia Sept. 20.
The U.S. military is working to build medical centers in Liberia and may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis. Medical workers and beds for Ebola patients are sorely lacking, particularly in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia and Sierra Leone only have enough beds to meet about 25% of their needs, the World Health Organization said. British troops have arrived in Sierra Leone to start building more treatment centers and basic clinics.
A Ugandan-born naturalized Liberian doctor, John Taban Dada, died of Ebola at a treatment center on the outskirts of Monrovia early Thursday, health officials have confirmed. Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said the gynecologist and surgeon will be immediately buried Thursday in accordance with policy about the quick interment of victims.
Dada served as the medical director of the Redemption Hospital in Monrovia from 2008 to 2013 before moving on to take up a new assignment at the country's largest John F. Kennedy Memorial Center, according to authorities at the Redemption Hospital.
His death brings to four the number doctors who have died in Liberia since the outbreak. Over ninety health workers including nurses and physician's assistants have also died from the outbreak.
'It's going to be a long hard fight but we maintain that we can contain the outbreak in West Africa,' Frieden said. 'If we can't do that, then it's a different situation because it could spread to other parts of Africa and beyond.'
Contributing: Associated Press
U.S. Navy microbiologist Lt. Jimmy Regeimbal tests blood samples for Ebola at the U.S. Navy mobile laboratory of on Oct. 7 near Gbarnga in Bong County, central Liberia.(Photo: John Moore, Getty Images)
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