In an emotion-laden voice, the president of Liberia, Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, has pleaded with the Obama-led government in the United States to help her country fight the ravaging Ebola disease that has so far destroyed over 2,550 victims. She made this appeal when it is becoming obvious that the US’s response to the deadly Ebola epidemic is slow, even in the face of her country’s incapability at dealing with the disease.
Part of President Sirleaf Johnson’s letter states that “I am being honest with you when I say that at this rate, we will never break the transmission chain and the virus will overwhelm us.” This passionate appeal became all the more necessary because it is causing a lot of social crises in Liberia, while evacuated American doctors get to live after being treated in the US.
President Obama had gone on NBC’s Meet the Press program to say that his government will provide a 25-bed health facility in Liberia to help and treat infected patients and health workers, but Sirleaf Johnson in her letter asked for additional 1,500 beds across the country, and even asked that the US military be moved to set up a 100-bed hospital bed for Ebola treatment within Liberia.
The Obama-led administration has however come under criticism for its slow response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, and an infectious disease specialist with the Brown University who is currently in Liberia, Dr. Timothy Flanigan states “when President Obama announced that the US government was going to greatly increase its help, I was ecstatic. The 25-bed hospital that’s being provided is hardly a drop in the bucket for the people of Liberia.”
In stating her hopes for US help, President Sirleaf Johnson said a French medical worker with the Doctors without Borders told her in recent times, “We’re French. You’ve got America behind you. Why should we have to do this for you?”
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