 The U.S. moves came as the World Health Organization said
the Ebola death toll in the West African nations of Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone had topped 4,500 and a cruise ship
was turned away from a Mexican port over Ebola fears.
Obama, facing criticism from some lawmakers over his
administration's efforts to contain the hemorrhagic virus,
appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer who had served as chief of
staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to oversee
the U.S. response.
The White House also said it would send senior personnel
to Dallas to help federal, state and local officials there
trying to identify and monitor people who came in contact
with three people who caught the disease.
The three include Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person
diagnosed with the disease in the United States, and two
nurses who were on the team of health workers caring for
Duncan until his death last week.
Obama met with health and national security aides and
"underscored that the domestic response to Ebola cases must
be seamless at all levels," the White House said in a
statement.
It was the third consecutive day that Obama had convened
officials to discuss what has become a major political issue
for his Democratic administration ahead of mid-term
elections next month.
The officials will include a Federal Emergency Management
Agency coordinator, Kevin Hannes, and a White House liaison,
Adrian Saenz, a presidential aide. Governor Rick Perry has
named Texas emergency management chief W. Nim Kidd to
coordinate the state Ebola effort, the White House said.
CRUISE SHIP QUARANTINE
Authorities said a Texas health worker, who was not ill
but may have had contact with specimens from the patient,
was quarantined on a cruise ship that departed on Sunday
from Galveston, Texas.
The Carnival Magic, operated by Carnival Corp unit
Carnival Cruise Lines, skipped a planned stop in Cozumel,
Mexico, because of delays getting permission to dock from
Mexican authorities, the cruise line said. The ship was
scheduled to return to Galveston on Sunday.
A Mexican port authority official said the ship was
denied clearance to avoid any possible risk from Ebola.
The countries worst hit by Ebola have been Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the disease has killed 4,546
since the outbreak started in March, an updated tally from
the World Health Organization shows.
That marked a sharp increase from late July, when fewer
than 730 people had died from the disease in West Africa.
The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily
fluids from an infected person.
The toll on the worst-hit countries has gone beyond the
illness, because of disruptions to farming and marketing.
The World Food Program said food prices in Guinea, Liberia
and Sierra Leone had risen an average of 24 percent, forcing
some families to cut back to one meal a day.
U.S. ANXIETY
The White House appointments and the Mexican cruise ship
incident highlighted anxiety over the threat from Ebola,
even though the three Dallas cases are the only ones
diagnosed in the United States.
Klain replaces U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention director Thomas Frieden as the new public face of
the government's response to Ebola. The CDC chief was
strongly criticized for his handling of the situation in
Dallas.
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Republicans were quick to criticize Klain, who is seen as a
political operative.
"Leave it to President Obama to put a liberal political activist
in charge of the administration's Ebola response," Representative
John Fleming, a Louisiana medical doctor, said in a statement.
Frieden told a congressional hearing this week that some
protective equipment used by health care workers exposed some parts
of the skin.
Given those concerns and the fact that two nurses got Ebola at
the hospital, the CDC "very soon" will put out new guidelines on
putting on and taking off protective gowns, masks, gloves and other
gear, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said.
SCARE REACHES THE PENTAGON
Illustrating the public worry in the United States, the Pentagon
confirmed an Ebola scare when a woman who recently traveled to
Africa vomited after getting off a bus headed to a Marine Corps
ceremony.
In a statement, Virginia health officials said Ebola had been
ruled out as the cause of the woman's illness.
Klain was appointed the day after U.S. lawmakers, in a
congressional hearing, criticized the administration's handling of
Ebola. Some called for a ban on travel from West Africa, as other
politicians have in recent weeks.
The White House said on Friday that Obama was willing to "keep an
open mind" about a travel ban, but it was not being considered.
In a sign the disease can be beaten, the World Health
Organization said the West African country of Senegal was now
Ebola-free, although still vulnerable.
The CDC has said it is expanding its search for people who may
have been exposed to Amber Vinson, one of the nurses who treated
Duncan, to include passengers on a flight she made to Cleveland,
Ohio, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas.
Vinson went to Ohio over the weekend on Frontier Airlines while
running a slight fever.
One of the 48 people who had the earliest contact or possible
contact with Duncan has come out of quarantine after showing no
symptoms for 21 days of monitoring, a Dallas County official said.
The man was the first to get the all-clear.
There is no cure for Ebola. But U.S. health officials have asked
three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing
the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, when supplies ran out after it
was given to medical workers who contracted the disease in West
Africa.
Australian biotech firm CSL Ltd said it was working on a plasma
product to treat Ebola following a request from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, part of a growing commercial response to the
outbreak.
(Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Ian Simpson, Mohammad
Zargham, Frances Kerry and Jeff Mason in Washington, Jonathan
Kaminsky in New Orleans, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco, Simon
Gardner and Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Writing by Jim Loney,
Ian Simpson and Tom Brown; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Grant McCool,
Frances Kerry and Clarence Fernandez)
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