Obama is asking Congress to approve $4.64 billion for immediate response to the crisis and $1.54 billion for a contingency fund to help with future efforts. The immediate response would go toward containing the disease and speeding up the funding and development of vaccines.
“Without these additional resources, agencies will be unable to help control the epidemic, mitigate economic, social and political impacts of the crisis, ensure adequate domestic preparedness, develop safe and effective treatments and vaccines or expedite global health security capacity to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to outbreaks before they become epidemics,” the White House said in a statement.
On Thursday, Tony Banbury, the head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) told the BBC the mission doesn’t yet have enough resources to defeat Ebola and more help is needed from the international community.
“There are still people, villages, towns [and] areas that [are] not getting any type of help right now, and we definitely don’t have the response capability on the ground now from the international community,” Banbury told the BBC.
Despite the need for more resources, the mission says it is hopeful that its target of 70 percent bed space for new Ebola cases and 70 percent safe burials by December can be achieved, Banbury said.
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected more than 13,000 and killed close to 5,000 according to the World Health Organization.
If approved, the $6.18 billion asked for by Obama will be divided among the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will receive $1.83 billion; the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); the Department of Defense and the Department of State. All four agencies are currently working on the ground in West Africa in an operation led by USAID.