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 The plan would involve a greater involvement of the U.S. military in
tackling the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, the
Journal reported, citing people familiar with the proposal.
The outbreak has now killed upwards of 2,400 people, mostly in
Liberia, neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone as poorly resourced
West African healthcare systems have been overrun.
The U.S. government has already committed around $100 million to
tackle the outbreak by providing protective equipment for healthcare
workers, food, water, medical and hygiene equipment.
Obama could ask Congress for an additional $88 million to fund his
proposal, the WSJ reported. Plan details are expected during Obama's
visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Atlanta.
The move would come just days after Liberian President Ellen Johnson
Sirleaf appealed to Obama for urgent aid, saying that without it her
country would lose the fight against the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the epidemic is
spreading exponentially in Liberia, where more than half of the
deaths have been recorded.
The U.S. military said recently it would build a 25-bed field
hospital in Liberia to care for infected health workers but it would
hand it to Liberians to run.
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On Friday, the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia Deborah Malac said
Washington would train security forces in isolation operations,
after a boy was shot dead last month when Liberian soldiers opened
fire on a crowd protesting at a quarantine in a Monrovia
neighborhood.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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