The move, reserved for the most severe health crises, signals growing concern over the rare strain's rapid spread.
The outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has infected over 1,200 people in Congo, including 321 deaths, and 20 cases in neighboring Uganda, reaching the highest first-month total of any episode of the disease, the World Health Organization said this week.
The White House is seeking more than 1.4 billion USD in new funds from Congress to address the widening outbreak, including 800 million USD for a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, a Trump administration official told Reuters on Thursday.
The US is sending doses of an experimental Ebola treatment to Africa and preparing to deploy 2,500 diagnostic tests to help contain the outbreak, health officials said on Friday.
