Fears of a US Ebola epidemic are spreading after it was revealed an Ebola-infected nurse flew on a commercial flight. Meanwhile, President Obama has called for increased urgency in the global fight against the disease, reports GHN based on DW.
United States President Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to combat the Ebola outbreak in a "much more aggressive way," highlighting an increased sense of urgency regarding the spread of the disease and calling on the world to more vigorously fight the epidemic in West Africa.
Obama's comments came after it emerged on Wednesday that a second US ebola patient had taken a domestic flight on a commercial airliner, a day before testing positive for the virus, widening fears the disease could spread in the US.
"We want a rapid response team, a SWAT team essentially, from the CDC to be on the ground as quickly as possible, hopefully within 24 hours, so that they are taking the local hospital step by step through what needs to be done," Obama said.
Obama, who canceled a Thursday political trip to monitor the government's ebola response, also urged world leaders to fight the spread of the disease in hardest-hit West Africa.
"We are going to have to make sure that we do not lose sight of the importance of the international response to what is taking place in West Africa," Obama said. Earlier the US President called his counteparts in Britain, France, Germany, and Italy in order to better coordinate the global response to the outbreak.
"Leaders agreed that this was the most serious international public health emergency in recent years and that the international community needed to do much more and faster," British Prime Minister David Cameron's office said.