President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized the United States Department of Defense to call up armed forces to active duty to help combat the spread of Ebola in West Africa.
Obama notified Congress of his executive order, saying that "I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation United Assistance."
This is providing support to civilian-led humanitarian assistance and consequence management support related to the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa, he said.
According to Department of Defense officials, up to 4,000 military personnel could be dispatched to the region. But the White House said that it didn't know exactly how many reserve troops would be required.
"The Department of Defense has told the president that it will require about 4,000 Department of Defense personnel to execute the mission the president has directed them to execute," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in the afternoon.
Pressure on the White House to combat Ebola has intensified in recent days after a second nurse was diagnosed with the deadly virus.
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U.S. hospital "deeply sorry" for Ebola mistakes, nurse transferred
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- A hospital in Texas where an Ebola patient died and two nurses were infected apologized Thursday for mishandling the deadly disease, as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) prepared to treat the first nurse who contracted the virus while caring for the deceased.
Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer at Texas Health Resources, told a House subcommittee hearing that errors were made when healthcare workers sent the country's first and now deceased Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan home, even though he had a fever and told them he was from Liberia.  Full story
UN reports worsening Ebola situation in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a continuously deteriorating situation in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the Ebola outbreak, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters here Thursday.
"An increase in new cases in Guinea is being driven by a spike in cases in the capital, Conakry, and the nearby district of Coyah, " Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here, adding that in Liberia, there is almost certainly significant under-reporting of cases from the capital Monrovia while in Sierra Leone, intense transmission is still occurring in the capital Freetown and its surroundings.