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               Obama: Ebola Threat to 'Regional, Global Security'

   by VOA News

   Continuing his administration's efforts to combat the outbreak of Ebola
   in Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama is addressing a special United
   Nations meeting on the threat in New York Thursday.

   Calling the outbreak "a growing threat to regional and global
   security," Obama said "stopping Ebola is in the interests of the entire
   world."

   "In Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, public health systems are near
   collapse. Economic growth is slowing dramatically," he said. "If this
   epidemic is not stopped, this disease could cause a humanitarian
   catastrophe across the region."

   He then called on UN member-nations to respond to calls for increased
   medical supplies and aid for men and women on the "front lines" working
   to keep the virus from spreading and treating those who are already
   infected.

   Right now, patients are being left to die in the streets because
   there's nowhere to put them and no one to help them," he said. "One
   health worker in Sierra Leone compared fighting this outbreak to
   'fighting a forest fire with spray bottles.' With our help, they can
   put out the blaze."

   U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting the gathering of world
   leaders aimed at rallying efforts to contain the outbreak, prevent
   future ones and treat those who are infected.

   $1B plan

   The president [1]announced last week a $1 billion-plus U.S. plan to
   help West African nations contain Ebola. "We need a broader effort to
   stop a disease that could kill hundreds of thousands, inflict horrific
   suffering, destabilize economies, and move rapidly across borders,"
   Obama said during his speech to the U.N. General Assembly Wednesday.

   "It's easy to see this as a distant problem -- until it is not. And
   that is why we will continue to mobilize other countries to join us in
   making concrete commitments, significant commitments to fight this
   outbreak, and enhance our system of global health security for the long
   term," the president added.

   The U.S. has deployed doctors, scientists and military personnel to
   help "contain the outbreak and pursue new treatments," Obama said.

   According to the World Health Organization, the exponential spread of
   the Ebola has now killed almost 3,000 people in West Africa.

   Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma and Liberian President Ellen
   Johnson-Sirleaf will also take part through teleconference.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-address-un-ebola-meeting/246
   2000.html

References

   1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/09/16/major-increase-our-response-ebola-outbreak
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-address-un-ebola-meeting/2462000.html