In a bid to curtail Ebola outbreak, USA Basketball has
canceled the team's trip to Senegal because of concerns over the deadly Ebola
outbreak, federation chairman Jerry Colangelo said Friday.
The men's team, stocked with NBA stars, had been scheduled
to visit Africa for the first time on August 27, with a day of basketball
clinics, tours and other functions planned in the capital Dakar.
Although Senegal is not one of the countries so far
afflicted in West Africa, Colangelo said its position bordering Guinea and
Dakar's role as a gateway to West Africa heightened concerns.
"Considering this unprecedented outbreak, USA
Basketball has decided to cancel our August 27 scheduled visit to
Senegal," Colangelo said. "I speak for everyone at USA Basketball
when I say we are extremely disappointed that we will not be able to visit Senegal.
"We will look for opportunities in the future to work
with and support the Senegalese national team."
Medical charity MSF said Friday the Ebola epidemic is moving
faster than authorities can handle and could take six months to bring under
control.
The warning came a day after the World Health Organization
said the scale of the epidemic had been vastly underestimated and that
"extraordinary measures" were needed to contain the killer disease.
The UN health agency said the death toll from the worst outbreak
of Ebola in four decades had now climbed to 1,145 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and
Sierra Leone.
The US team's stop in Dakar was to follow an exhibition game
against Slovenia on August 26 on Spain's Gran Canaria island.
The United States open their FIBA World Cup campaign against
Finland in Bilbao, Spain, on August 30.
The FIBA World Cup -- formerly the World Championships --
will take place August 30 to September 14
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