Ebola Was Here

Promised by U.S. President Barack Obama in early September, the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU), built by the United States Army 101st Airborne division, opened yesterday to the appreciative smiles of Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and U.S. Ambassador Deborah Malac. The 25-bed tent facility is the Cadillac of the country’s Ebola Treatment Centers, or Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs): air-conditioned, comfortable, and staffed by highly trained members of the U.S. Public Health Service.

“This is a symbol of the strong partnership the government and people of the United States have with the people of Liberia,” Ambassador Malac said at the opening ceremony. Noting that the MMU is meant to handle Liberian and foreign health care workers infected on the job, President Sirleaf added, “those that have trained to preserve life, went out there knowing what they were dealing with and then paid the ultimate price — now they have a place that they can come to. I want to thank President Obama, the Congress, the government, and the people of the United States who have come to our aid.”