In this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, healthcare workers spray disinfectant as they enter a makeshift morgue with the bodies of people suspecting of dying from the Ebola virus, in Kenema, Sierra Leone, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Sierra Leone restricted travel Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 in three more “hotspots” of Ebola where more than 1 million people live, meaning about a third of the country’s population is now under quarantine. Sierra Leone is one of the hardest hit countries in the Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa that is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people, according to World Health Organization tolls published Thursday. (AP Photo/ Tanya Bindra)By JULIE PACE
AP White House Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS – President Barack Obama, in a chilling assessment of international efforts to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak, said the world has not done enough to respond to a health crisis that poses a growing threat to regional and global security.
“There is still a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be,” Obama said Thursday in remarks to a high-level United Nations meeting on Ebola.
The crisis in West Africa is the largest ever outbreak of Ebola, with more than 6,200 people believed to have been sickened, almost half of whom have died. U.S. health officials have warned that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January, though they have also cautioned that the totals could peak well below that if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.