Calling it an “epidemic” that is “spiraling out of control”, US President Barack Obama unveiled his plan to step up US involvement in the fight on the West African Ebola Outbreak.  3,000 US troops are being deployed to coordinate a growing international response, as well as build 17 Ebola treatment centers for Liberia with 100 beds each.

“We have to act fast.  We can’t dawdle on this one,” President Obama said at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.  “If the outbreak is not stopped now we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people infected.”  The US Troops will provide training and logistics, but will not deal with Ebola patients directly.  

Mr. Obama said the deadly Ebola virus wasn’t directly threatening America or its allies at present, but nonetheless presented a “potential threat to global security” if the collapsing healthcare systems in West Africa take their respective countries with them. 

More than 2,460 people have died in the epidemic so far this year, with more than half of those deaths in Liberia.  Guinea and Sierra Leone, the first countries to confirm cases earlier this year, were also hit very hard.  Nigeria has kept Ebola’s introduction there to eight deaths.  But the numbers mask the true depth of the disaster.  In Geneva, the US World Health Organization (WHO) said that earlier projections of 20,000 or more Ebola cases no longer seem like hyperbole.

“You start to get a sense of the rapid escalation we're now seeing of the virus, as it moves from what was a linear increase in cases to now almost an exponential increase in cases,” said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s Assistant Director-General.

On the front lines in Sierra Leone, Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says other countries must follow the US lead because the world’s response to outbreak so far has fallen “dangerously behind”.

“The window of opportunity to contain this outbreak is closing," said MSF President Dr. Joanne Liu.  “We need more countries to stand up, we need greater deployment, and we need it now.”