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State Department Orders 5,000 BODY BAGS And 160,000 Hazmat Suits For African Ebola Outbreak
The U.S. Agency for International Development ordered 5,000 body bags from a Florida company last month as part of its planned response to an outbreak of the Ebola virus in western Africa.
And as President Obama prepares to enlarge America's aid to affected countries, a company that makes protective clothing says the State Department, which oversees USAID, has invited bids for 160,000 hazmat suits.
The body-bag purchase came on August 19, just after the World Health Organization said the epidemic had killed 1,000 people. That death toll is now greater than 2,400.
The size of the contracts indicates how seriously governments are taking the threat, especially considering that all 5,000 body bags were destined only for Liberia – one of three countries whose citizens have been hammered with new disease cases and paralyzed with fear.
And the purchase says nothing about what resources might be coming as part of other nations' contributions.
Barack Obama will travel to Atlanta on Tuesday for a briefing with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His chief spokesman said Monday that the president will announce new levels of support from the U.S. to fight the disease.
The CDC has begun to warn health care workers and hospital administrators to be on the lookout for potential Ebola cases. 'Now is the time to prepare,' reads part of a six-page 'checklist' being distributed nationwide.
The agency has already deployed about 100 of its own workers to Africa, White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters during his daily briefing.
'This is, if not the largest, among the largest deployments of CDC personnel – ever,' he said.
America, Earnest added, 'has a unique responsibility to step up in the midst of an international crisis. ... Our doctors and scientists are some of the best in the world.'
The federal government as a whole has allocated $100 million in financing and other resources to assist what has become a continent-wide race against the clock to stamp out a crafty pathogen before it can spread beyond hope of containment.
Read the full story: www.dailymail.co.uk
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