WASHINGTON, October 28 (RIA Novosti) — White House press secretary Josh Earnest has stated that the attempts of Russia and China to fight the deadly Ebola disease fade in comparison with US efforts.
"When we have a situation like this on the global scene, people aren't wondering what the Chinese are doing to respond to it. People aren't picking up the phone and wondering if Vladimir Putin is going to commit Russian resources to this effort. People want to know what the United States of America is doing about it. And what this President has done is stepped up and showed the kind of American leadership that makes the American people proud," Earnest said Monday at the press briefing.
"There's no other international government that's made a commitment like the United States has to ensuring that we're going to strengthen the logistics in place in West Africa to speed the transfer of supplies, equipment and personnel into the region to stop this outbreak at the source," White House spokesperson claimed.
The United States earlier announced the transfer of nearly 4,000 soldiers to Liberia to help combat the disease and pledged to help build a number of temporary hospitals in the Ebola-hit countries. So far, the US military have launched a field hospital with 25 beds for local medical workers, who may be infected with a virus.
Russia plans to sign a memorandum with Guinea in the coming weeks on the joint effort to fight Ebola, including, in particular, completion of Russian vaccine against Ebola.
Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a phone conversation agreed to increase cooperation on combating the virus.
The current Ebola outbreak began in southern Guinea in the beginning of this year and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal.
According the most recent estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 4,900 people have died from current Ebola outbreak that originated in the West African country of Guinea. There have also been some 10,100 occurrences of confirmed, suspected and registered Ebola cases.
