EU calls for stepped up Ebola response

Christos Stylianides, who was appointed by the European Union last week to lead the fight against Ebola in West Africa, said in Brussels on Monday that the 28-member bloc needed to increase the number of hospital beds dedicated to fighting the outbreak to 5,000 from the current 1,000. This, he said, would require tens of thousands of more health workers.

"Every bed requires eight health and support staff. This means we need to mobilize immediately at least 40,000 staff," he said.

In a speech to the Emergency Response Coordination Center in Brussels, Stylianedes said he intended to travel to West Africa shortly after he takes up his post as European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management at the start of next month.

"This will allow me to better assess the needs and gaps in our efforts. It will help decide our next steps. My presence on the ground will underline that fear and isolation is not an option. That our solidarity is real and tangible," he said.

The EU and its member states have so far contributed more than 800 million euros ($1 billion) to the fight against the Ebola outbreak, which according to official sources, has claimed the lives of nearly 5,000 people, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

UN warning against 'hype and hysteria'

Also on Monday, the head of the United Nations Ebola Emergency Response Mission (UNMEER) , Anthony Banbury, warned against placing international health workers returning from West Africa in quarantine based on "hype and hysteria" as opposed to "science and fact."

"Anything that will dissuade foreign trained personnel from coming here to West Africa and joining us on the frontline to fight the fight would be very, very unfortunate," Banbury told a Reuters reporter in Accra.

Dozens of GIs isolated

At the same time, though, the Pentagon announced that dozens of US Army soldiers and their two-star general were being placed in isolation at their base in Vicenza, Italy, after having returned from an Ebola response mission in West Africa.

A Pentagon spokesman said the officers would not be allowed to return to their homes for 21 days after their arrival back at the base, during which time they would be regularly checked for Ebola symptoms. He also said no exposure incident triggered the decision to place them in isolation.

pfd/glb (Reuters, dpa, AP)