[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 10, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Page S5512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 541--RECOGNIZING THE SEVERE THREAT THAT THE EBOLA 
    OUTBREAK IN WEST AFRICA POSES TO POPULATIONS, GOVERNMENTS, AND 
  ECONOMIES ACROSS AFRICA AND, IF NOT PROPERLY CONTAINED, TO REGIONS 
  ACROSS THE GLOBE, AND EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY THIS 
                                EPIDEMIC

  Mr. COONS (for himself, Mr. Flake, Mr. Menendez, and Mr. Durbin) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 541

       Whereas Ebola hemorrhagic fever is an extremely infectious 
     virus that causes severe illness with a fatality rate that 
     can well exceed 50 percent;
       Whereas Ebola is spread through contact with blood, 
     secretions, or other bodily fluids of infected humans and 
     animals and can have an incubation period of up to 21 days;
       Whereas the Ebola virus first appeared in the Democratic 
     Republic of the Congo in 1976 and has afflicted communities 
     in Africa at least 20 times since then;
       Whereas the current Ebola outbreak first occurred in 
     February 2014 in forested areas of southeastern Guinea and 
     subsequently spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and 
     Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently 
     discovered the outbreak of a separate strain of the virus;
       Whereas this is the first outbreak of Ebola in West Africa 
     and the biggest and most complex to date, due to its 
     emergence in populated, transient border areas, making 
     containment a significant challenge;
       Whereas, to date, Ebola had infected more than 3,600 people 
     in West Africa and caused almost 2,000 deaths;
       Whereas the current Ebola outbreak has occurred in 
     countries with some of the weakest health systems in the 
     world facing severe shortages of healthcare workers, 
     laboratories essential for testing and diagnosis, clinics and 
     hospitals required for treatment, and medical supplies and 
     protective gear, such as latex gloves and face masks required 
     to prevent contamination of health facilities;
       Whereas these weak and inadequate healthcare facilities, a 
     lack of health staff trained in Ebola response, and 
     misconceptions about the virus have resulted in numerous 
     infections of health workers and patients unable to receive 
     appropriate response and care;
       Whereas effective countermeasures for stemming the spread 
     of Ebola, such as isolation, meticulous infection control 
     practices, case investigation, and contact tracing require 
     more trained personnel and resources than are currently 
     available in West Africa;
       Whereas, although Ebola can be contained with good public 
     health and burial practices, it continues to spread due to a 
     lack of accurate public information, insufficient treatment 
     facilities, limited local language capacities required for 
     health education, and an unwillingness to allow those 
     infected to be isolated from family members;
       Whereas governments are collaborating closely with 
     international donors and taking strong measures to contain 
     the virus, including announcing states of emergency and 
     establishing emergency response centers;
       Whereas the limitations on transportation and travel and 
     closing of businesses have had a devastating economic impact 
     throughout the region and may cause social instability and 
     exacerbate the humanitarian crisis if not properly managed 
     and offset;
       Whereas the international community has committed to 
     support solutions to the current limitations on air traffic 
     and establish a common operational platform to address acute 
     problems associated with food security, protection, water, 
     sanitation and hygiene, primary and secondary health care, 
     and education, as well as the longer-term recovery effort 
     that will be needed in the face of the complex social 
     consequences of this emergency;
       Whereas the Governments of the Democratic Republic of the 
     Congo and Uganda have sent experts familiar with such 
     outbreaks to Liberia to assist with the outbreak response, 
     and the Government of Ghana has agreed to serve as the 
     international community's logistics and coordination center 
     and is providing a vital corridor for supplies and personnel;
       Whereas, after visiting affected communities in West 
     Africa, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director 
     Tom Frieden said on September 2, 2014, ``There is a window of 
     opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing . . 
     . we need action now to scale up the response.'';
       Whereas the United States Government has provided more than 
     $101,400,000 in support through the Centers for Disease 
     Control and Prevention, the United States Agency for 
     International Development, the World Health Organization, and 
     the United States Armed Forces since February 2014;
       Whereas the United States Government helped to fund the 
     development of the Zmapp biopharmaceutical experimental drug 
     that was given to 2 United States health workers afflicted 
     with the virus and was recently donated to 3 Liberian doctors 
     with encouraging effect and has prompted calls for further 
     research and development of such vaccines;
       Whereas, on August 5, 2014, the United States Government 
     deployed a multi-agency Disaster Assistance Response Team 
     composed of staff from Federal agencies, including the United 
     States Agency for International Development, the Centers for 
     Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense, 
     the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Forest 
     Service to coordinate the United States Government's response 
     efforts;
       Whereas the World Health Organization published on August 
     28, 2014, a roadmap for scaled-up response that aims to stop 
     the virus in 6 to 9 months and calls for 750 international 
     and 12,000 local health workers to contribute to the halt of 
     the Ebola outbreak; and
       Whereas, earlier this year, the United States Government 
     joined with partner governments, the World Health 
     Organization, other multilateral organizations, and 
     nongovernmental actors to launch the Global Health Security 
     Agenda, a 5-year commitment to prevent, detect, and 
     effectively respond to infectious disease threats such as 
     Ebola: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes the severe immediate threat that Ebola poses 
     to populations, governments, and economies in Africa;
       (2) recognizes that the limited capacity of the initial 
     outbreak countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia to 
     combat the epidemic has been exhausted and the potential 
     threat to regions beyond Africa if this, the largest of all 
     Ebola outbreaks, is not contained;
       (3) expresses support for those affected by this epidemic 
     and affirms its sympathy for victims of Ebola and their 
     families;
       (4) supports the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra 
     Leone, Nigeria, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the 
     Congo for their ongoing efforts to combat the Ebola virus in 
     their countries and regionally;
       (5) urges citizens of affected countries to respect 
     preventative guidelines provided by their governments and 
     medical professionals from Africa and around the world in 
     order to stem the outbreak;
       (6) supports the work of the Centers for Disease Control 
     and Prevention, the United States Agency for International 
     Development, the Department of Defense, the Department of 
     Health and Human Services, the Department of State, the 
     Forest Service, and other United States Government agencies 
     providing technical, logistical, and material support to 
     address the Ebola crisis in West Africa;
       (7) encourages deepened United States and international 
     commitments to the global Ebola response;
       (8) welcomes the delivery of assistance and increased 
     engagement from donors such as the Economic Community of West 
     African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union, the World 
     Bank, the European Union, and the Government of Canada;
       (9) expresses support for the promotion of investments in 
     global health in order to ensure that governments can better 
     prevent and detect, contain, and eventually eliminate 
     outbreaks of disease while also providing other essential 
     health services;
       (10) supports the World Health Organization's Ebola 
     Response Roadmap and a common operational platform in 
     response to the crisis;
       (11) encourages the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, 
     Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone to work together and with 
     other nations and regional and subregional organizations to 
     establish institutional emergency response systems to more 
     effectively respond to this and future outbreaks of Ebola and 
     other highly infectious diseases;
       (12) welcomes proactive measures taken by governments in 
     West Africa to formulate national plans of action in response 
     to the crisis; and
       (13) recognizes the work of thousands of African, United 
     States, and international officials and volunteers on the 
     ground in West Africa, particularly healthcare workers, who 
     are working diligently and at great risk to help address this 
     multidimensional crisis, and encourages other healthcare 
     workers and logisticians to volunteer.

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