WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. official estimates there are 3,000 active cases of Ebola in West Africa, many of them in small clusters dotted throughout the countryside that require a more rapid and flexible response.
Rajiv Shah is administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Shah calls the worrisome clusters "micro-epidemics." He told a congressional committee Thursday the goal is to race mini-treatment centers to those areas to keep them from spreading widely.
Shah spoke as the Obama administration is seeking more than $6 billion in emergency aid to fight Ebola in West Africa and shore up U.S. preparedness. USAID is leading the nation's response in West Africa. Shah said his agency desperately needs the emergency funds or will have to shift money that fights famine in other countries toward fighting Ebola.
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