[sunnyatlast]

State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Updated: 8:13 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise the U.S. will be the world's medical backstop.

Some countries "are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances" before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.

"The United States needs to show leadership and act as we are asking others to act by admitting certain non-citizens into the country for medical treatment for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the Ebola crisis," says the four-page memo, which lists Office of International Health and Biodefense Deputy Director Robert Sorenson as its author.

More than 10,000 people have become infected with Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and the U.S. has taken a lead role in arguing the pandemic must be stopped over there. President Obama has committed thousands of U.S. troops and has deployed American medical personnel, but other countries have been slow to follow.

In the memo, officials say they would prefer patients go to Europe, but there are some cases where the U.S. is "the logical treatment destination for non-citizens."

The document has been shared with Congress, where lawmakers were already nervous over the administration's handling of the Ebola outbreak. The memo even details expected price per patient, saying transport costs come to $200,000 and treatment is estimated at $300,000 per case.

A State Department official denied there are plans to bring non-citizen patients to the U.S., saying……."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...la-pati/print/