President Barack Obama will announce during a visit Tuesday to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that he plans to send additional medical aid to West Africa as part of the fight against the deadly outbreak of Ebola.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest described the announcement as a “ramping up” of U.S. assistance, but he did not give further details.
Critics have called the U.S. and other countries slow in their response to the outbreak that is overwhelming local health systems and the international aid response. The disease has had its greatest impact in the nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, although there are concerns that it is spreading to Nigeria.
The World Health Organization estimates the death toll at around 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases.
The president’s pledge will be in addition to the Defense Department’s announcement last week that it was sending a 25-bed, $22 million hospital to Liberia to care for sickened medical workers there.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director general, warned last week 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.
There is no politicking on the schedule while Obama is in Atlanta.
After visiting the CDC, Obama will head to Tampa, Fla., where he will meet with military leaders at the U.S. Central Command to discuss the campaign against the militant group the Islamic State.
The president’s Atlanta trip comes a week after his wife was in town to tour a school, raise money for Democrats, and rally voters for Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter.
It will be the president’s first trip to Atlanta since last year, when he gave the commencement address at Morehouse College.
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