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U.S. To Deploy 3,000 Troops In Ebola-Stricken Countries

As it increases its efforts to battle the worsening Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the United States will deploy at least 3,000 military forces in the region, particularly in Liberia, the country worst hit by the epidemic.

Reuters reports that the response would include goals to build 17 Ebola treatment centers needed to quarantine patients, provide medical and logistical support to swamped local health care systems, and set up a military control center for coordination.

Pres. Barack Obama plans to announce the plans on Tuesday as he visits the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta amid threats that the outbreak can get far more uncontrollable and the virus can mutate into a more contagious and dangerous disease.

“The goal here is to search American expertise, including our military, logistics and command and control expertise, to try and control this outbreak at its source in west Africa,” counter-terrorism adviser Lisa Monaco told MSNBC.

Other countries have also pledged aid to the affected countries, including China and Cuba, which will deploy 59 medical experts and 65 medical workers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the outbreak, deemed the worst epidemic in recent history, has killed more than 2,200 and recorded more than 4,200 cases in five African countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, and Senegal.

Liberia has the worst situation in the region as treatment centers are deluged with Ebola cases and not a single bed is available to patients.

“We are honestly at a loss as to how a single, private NGO is providing the bulk of isolation units and beds,” said Joanne Liu, president of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders or MSF) in a United Nations meet in Geneva.

She said the organization has resorted to turning away highly infectious people, which increases the risk of infecting others and continue the spread of the deadly virus.

While she has no details yet about the  US aid, Liu said it will definitely help in controlling the disease but they need to double their efforts and time.

“With every passing week, the epidemic grows exponentially,” said Liu. “With every passing week, the response becomes all the more complicated.”

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