奥巴马呼吁全球共同应对埃博拉

周二，美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)警告说，全球必须尽快行动，抗击埃博拉带来的威胁。与此同时，为了控制埃博拉病毒的蔓延，美国向西非派遣了3000名士兵。
在医疗卫生官员警告说埃博拉病毒死亡人数可能会急剧上升之际，奥巴马表示：“局面正在逐渐失控。情况正变得越来越糟。病毒的蔓延正在呈指数式加速。”
他说，埃博拉病毒在美国蔓延的可能性极低。然而，“如果这些（西非）国家崩溃，经济陷入崩溃，民众陷入恐慌”，埃博拉将对全球安全造成威胁。
就在美国推出这一举措之际，联合国(UN)曾警告说，埃博拉疫情正在恶化，近2500人死亡，将近5000人感染。世界卫生组织(WHO)警告说，死亡人数可能会每三周翻一番，表明该病毒依然处于失控状态。
美国提供的援助是今年2月病毒在几内亚偏远地带爆发以来，最为重要的外来援助。自埃博拉爆发以来，该病毒的发作一直集中在几内亚、利比里亚和塞拉利昂。除此以外，尼日利亚和塞内加尔也曾出现少量病例。
白宫表示已拨款1.75亿美元应对这一危机，他们还将在利比里亚的蒙罗维亚设立埃博拉疫情指挥中心，帮助培训医护人员及建设新的治疗中心。
奥巴马表示：“这是一次全球性威胁，需要真正的全球应对。”他是在亚特兰大的美国疾病控制预防中心(US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)发表这番讲话的，该中心在这次应对埃博拉病毒的过程中扮演着核心角色。
他敦促国际组织提高响应速度，并呼吁各国政府贡献更多人力、医疗设备和资金。
WHO助理总干事布鲁斯•艾尔沃德(Bruce Aylward)表示，全球正面临一场“前所未有的”公共卫生危机。
他说：“我们不知道此次事件中的各项数字将达到什么样的规模。”他补充说，即使“大幅提高响应速度”，感染病例的数目也可能达到数以万计的地步。
联合国埃博拉疫情资深协调员戴维•纳巴罗(David Nabarro)博士表示，估计受影响国家应对疫情成本已达10亿美元，这一数字是一个月前估计的10倍。而那些国家目前只拨付了很小的部分。
纳巴罗表示：“一个月前，我们所要求的资金大约为1亿美元，如今已变成10亿美元。也就是说，我们所要求的资金在一个月内翻了10倍。”
白宫方面并未说明被派往西非的美国军方人员将在那里停留多久，不过WHO曾表示疫情可能会再持续6到9个月。
“无国界医生组织”(Médecins sans Frontières)是少数在西非与这种病毒做斗争的非政府组织之一。此前该组织曾表示，也许动用军方生化部队才是阻止疫情蔓延的唯一途径。
此外，美国政府还呼吁联合国安理会(UN Security Council)本周召集紧急会议，协调对该地区的援助。美国驻联合国大使萨曼莎•鲍威尔(Samantha Power)表示，埃博拉疫情可能会“让西非国家遭受一代人的倒退”。 
The world must act fast to fight the global threat posed by Ebola, President Barack Obama warned on Tuesday as the US deployed 3,000 soldiers to west Africa to contain the outbreak.
“It’s spiralling out of control. It is getting worse. It’s spreading faster and exponentially,” Mr Obama said as health officials warned that the death toll could rise sharply. “We have to act fast.”
The chances of an Ebola outbreak in the US were extremely low, he said, but the disease would pose a threat to global security “if these [west African] countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic”.
The US move came as senior UN officials warned the outbreak was worsening with almost 2,500 dead and close to 5,000 people infected. In a sign that the virus remains out of control, the World Health Organisation warned that the number of dead was likely to double every three weeks.
The US offer of help is the most significant since the outbreak erupted in a remote region of Guinea in February. Since then, the virus has been concentrated in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Two other countries – Nigeria and Senegal – have had a small number of cases.
The White House said it had already committed $175m to address the crisis and would set up an Ebola command centre in Monrovia, Liberia, to help train healthcare workers and build new treatment centres.
Speaking in Atlanta at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is playing a central role in the response, Mr Obama said “this is a global threat, and it demands a truly global response”.
He urged international organisations to move faster and called on governments to contribute more personnel, medical supplies and funding.
Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of the WHO, said the world was facing a health crisis “unparalleled in modern times”.
“We don’t know wher the numbers are going on this,” he said, adding that even with “a much faster response” the number of cases could reach the tens of thousands.
Dr David Nabarro, senior UN co-ordinator for Ebola, said the estimate of how much it would cost the countries affected to tackle the disease had jumped tenfold to $1bn from a previous estimate just a month ago. only a fraction has been committed by countries affected.
“The amount for which we requested was about $100m a month ago and now it is $1bn, so our ask has gone up 10 times in a month,” Dr Nabarro said.
The White House did not say how long the US military personnel would remain deployed in west Africa, but the World Health Organisation has said in the past that the outbreak could last another 6-9 months.
Washington’s move came after a rare call by the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières, which has a long history of battling Ebola elsewher in Africa, for the mobilisation of western countries’ biological warfare units.
MSF, one of the handful of non-governmental organisations fighting the virus in west Africa, said the use of military biohazards units was probably the only way to stop the spread of the disease.
Washington has also called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council this week to co-ordinate international help for the region. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, said the epidemic could “set the countries of west Africa back a generation”.
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