that up to 1.4 million people in Sierra Leone and Liberia could end up with Ebola, unless

efforts to contain the disease are dramatically increased. So, what’s currently being done

about the epidemic in West Africa and is it going to be enough?

Well, we’re doing a lot - but possibly still not enough. Containing Ebola is a matter of building

up resources and disseminating information; two things that West Africa is currently struggling

with. But things are starting to move in the right direction. The US has committed an estimated

3,000 troops to the area, including members of The Army Corps of Engineers, to help coordinate

the relief effort. It’s also reported that they’ll be constructing 17 Ebola treatment

centers in Liberia with room for about 1,700 beds. They intend to train up to 500 health

workers a week to staff those facilities and others in West Africa. They’re also going

to increase the number of health workers sent from the CDC, and to that end, they’re currently

looking for volunteers. So if you’re a health worker and you’re interested in join the

relief effort, here’s where you can apply.

In addition to all of that, the US is providing protection kits immediately targeting 400,000

of the most vulnerable households in Liberia, and they are sending tens of thousands of

Ebola testing kits. According to the White House press secretary, the US has already

spent $100 million dollars on the relief effort, which is a large amount - but still nowhere

near the 1 billion dollars that the UN thinks is necessary to fully contain the disease.

Fortunately, the US isn’t the only game in town and resources are starting to pour

in from other places, but they still aren’t close to where they need to be just yet.

There are also strong efforts in place to inform the West African public about the dangers

of Ebola and the best ways to protect against infection. But progress is slow. A lot of

the high risk populations are illiterate and don’t have access to television or radio,

so getting the information to them via mass communications isn't really a workable strategy.

That means developing grassroots campaigns and aggressive door-to-door strategies are

currently the best option; both of which have begun and have found some success. Sierra

Leone ran the largest operation of this kind. They put the entire country on lockdown for

3 full days, and insisted that people stay in their homes so that aid workers could go

door to door with bars of soap and information about the disease. They reached more than

75% of the 1.5 million households they were targeting.

Obviously, this is an ongoing issue, so if you’re interested in learning more about

it - then please go check out our playlist on the subject. It includes our other two

videos on Ebola as well as some work by news sources that we consider reliable. And remember - we upload

new videos five days a week, so please subscribe.