INDEPENDENCE, Ind.
— The United States is building a new base in the remote jungles of northern Uganda and is sending more troops to the country in an effort to fight the outbreak of the Ebola virus.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday the United States would establish a new Ebola treatment facility at a remote site in the Congo River Delta.
It is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.
The move comes as U.S. and other countries scramble to contain the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,500 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Thursday the United Nations has received 2,988 cases of Ebola in Guinea and Sierra Leone since Dec. 17, and nearly 3,000 have died.
The United Nations said Thursday that 1,500 of those have died and that the disease has killed nearly 3.4 million people worldwide.
The Ebola outbreak has killed about 10,000 people in Africa and nearly 8,000 in South and Central America.
In the Congo region, where the outbreak began, the Ebola outbreak is the worst in the country since the 1990s.
The Congo River, which flows through Uganda’s capital Kampala, has become a haven for people who have fled war, poverty and conflict.
The outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December and has killed 1,932 people in the area.
