Current Events

Current Events

The United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that it will take nearly one billion dollars in funding to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Both non-state factors warn that the number of Ebola cases may double and create a “human catastrophe” in the next three weeks if greater action is not enacted. United States President Barack Obama plans to deploy three thousand U.S. troops in aid to the region, but the global response to Ebola is said to be far short of sufficient. There have been at least two thousand and four hundred deaths attributed to this outbreak spreading across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal since March 2014. Half of the almost five thousand cases have occurred in the past few weeks and it is estimated that the number of those infected could reach twenty thousand. President Obama, the UN, and the WHO predict that this outbreak potentially affect hundreds of thousands of people globally, which could result in severe economic, political, and security implications.

Hundreds more international health workers, over three million hazard suits, and burial teams will be needed. The WHO reports that the overall cost is going to be ten times more than it was estimated to be in august. A global response is required to prevent international crisis. In addition to the U.S. aid, China has promised to send a fifty nine person mobile laboratory team to Sierra Leone, Britain is planning to build and run a clinic in Sierra Leone, and Cuba has promised more than one hundred and sixty health workers. The US vowed to build a twenty five bed field hospital in Liberia, but received backlash seeing that Liberia needs five hundred more treatment beds.

The U.S. is expected to take the global lead on stopping Ebola it in its tracks. This is a major theme in global politics: the U.S. is almost required to take the lead on all things that can potentially become an international issue. Now that the U.S....