Editorial: Disparity in Ebola aid shows nations' views of joint responsibility

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Sanitized gloves and boots hang to dry as a burial team collects Ebola victims from a Ministry of Health treatment center for cremation on Oct. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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Medical personnel at the Ebola treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, disinfect people who had brought patients suspected of having the Ebola virus on Oct. 2. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man transports a possible Ebola victim in a wheelbarrow on Oct. 2 at a treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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A health worker attends to a girl at the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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Markers for the graves of Ebola victims await placement in Bong County, Liberia. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)

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Nurses receive training from the World Health organization on how to use equipment to protect themselves from Ebola in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, on Sept. 18. (Michael Duff / Associated Press)

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A burial team, clad in protective gear, carries the body of a child at the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit in Bong County, Liberia. The girl, who watched her mother grow sick and die of the virus, died alone and terrified, workers said. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)

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Medical staff members in protective suits work in the high-risk Ebola area of the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)

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Traffic is stopped at a Guinean security force roadblock to screen people for symptoms of Ebola near the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)

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A health worker looking for signs of Ebola checks a man’s temperature at a roadblock run by Guinean security forces outside the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)

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A vehicle loaded with household items pauses at the border town of Diaobe in Senegal’s southern border region as people prepare to drive into Guinea. The Ebola epidemic is spreading in West Africa, spurring people to flee. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)

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A worker in a protective suit empties possibly Ebola-contaminated waste in a high-risk quarantine zone of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man who was showing symptoms of possible Ebola listens as UNICEF health workers speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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A resident checks on a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a Monrovia alley. The Liberian boy was one of a number of patients pulled from a holding center for suspected Ebola patients when the facility was overrun by a mob. A local clinic refused to treat him, residents said. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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Workers from the Liberian Ministry of Health disinfect themselves before burning the bodies of Ebola victims at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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A quarantine officer checks the body temperature of a passenger as a precaution against the Ebola virus at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea. South Korea has stepped up monitoring of citizens returning from West Africa. (Choe Jae-koo / Associated Press)

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Ebola patient Nancy Writebol is wheeled into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. (John Spink /Atlanta Journal-Constitution / MCT)

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A Nigerian crew waits to screen passengers for Ebola symptoms at the arrival hall of the international airport in Lagos. (Sunday Alamba / Associated Press)

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A 10-year-old boy is showered after being taken out of quarantine following his mother’s death from the Ebola virus, at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Zoom Dosso / AFP/Getty Images)

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A nurse with Doctors Without Borders examines a patient at a center in Gueckedou, Guinea. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)

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Social commentator Alfred Sirleaf, center rear, discusses the virus in Monrovia, Liberia. (Jonathan Paye-Layleh / Associated Press)

By The Times Editorial Board

Sept. 21, 2014 5 AM PT

Since Sept. 8, the death toll from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has grown from about 1,900 to well above 2,600 — an increase of more than 36% in less than two weeks. Perhaps the world should have realized earlier that this wasn’t another small outbreak, and should have responded more vigorously. Perhaps most countries hadn’t taken into account the fact that the World Health Organization’s budget had been so deeply cut that it no longer could act as the first responder to far-flung medical crises. But whatever the reason, it took a while — too long — for the level of contagion in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone to become obvious, and for the rest of the world to recognize just how much money and assistance would be required both to treat the sick and prevent the outbreak from spreading.

There’s no excuse now for any developed nation not to respond quickly and generously. The United States, to its credit, has more than shown the way. President Obama has offered to lead and organize an international response. He is seeking congressional approval to spend close to $1 billion in assistance, much of it redirected from elsewhere in the budget. That includes $500 million for the deployment of 3,000 troops to build treatment centers and train desperately needed healthcare workers. Congress should waste no time approving the request.

Time is money, in this case. Just weeks ago, the U.N. was warning that $600 million was needed to fight Ebola, and that without quick intervention the number of sick people might reach 20,000 within a few months. Now at least $1 billion is needed, and the potential threat to life is in the hundreds of thousands.

But Obama is right when he says there is even more at stake. Without food, water, assistance with crowd control and compliance on the part of the affected population with rules intended to reduce the risk of contagion, conditions in these already dysfunctional nations will escalate into a global security threat as a regional health crisis.

The United States should be proud of its humanitarian leadership. The question is whether other nations will see its generosity as a model to be followed, or as an excuse to be cheap. So far, the contrasts are striking: The relatively wealthy European Union has pledged only about $180 million toward the effort, a significant sum but one that pales next to that from the United States. China has offered to send 174 medical experts, most of whom already are in Africa. Compare that with Cuba, a none-too-wealthy nation that is sending almost the same number of medical personnel even though its population is less than 1% of China’s. Russia is doing almost nothing, while a single private organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has pledged an astonishingly generous $50 million.

There are signs, in all this, that although the economy may have become globalized, the sense of joint responsibility for the world’s welfare hasn’t.

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