U.N. ambassador visits Ebola-stricken West Africa
Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is in West Africa to review efforts to contain the Ebola virus and to seek more international support for the project.
"It will be showing in the mere fact of going as a member of the president's cabinet that we shouldn't be afraid," Power told NBC News. "We need to take trips like this, we need to be part of the solution and not run away from something, 'cause it'll come to us if we don't deal with it at its source."
During the NBC interview, Power criticized plans in three states to quarantine health care workers returning from West Africa, saying it would discourage others from going in the first place to help fight Ebola.
"We need to find a way, when they come home, that they are treated like conquering heroes and not stigmatized for the tremendous work that they've done," Power said.
Power, who landed in Guinea early Sunday, also plans to travel to Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the three nations hardest hit by Ebola. She also visits Ghana as well as Brussels, where she will speak with European officials about anti-Ebola measures.
The U.N. ambassador is the highest-ranking Obama administration official to make such a trip in the wake of the Ebola epidemic.
"Power told NBC News that she wants to identify what can be done differently on the ground by the U.N. or U.S. and bring those insights with her to Brussels and beyond in order to mobilize the commitment of more resources to fight Ebola.
"'The international response to Ebola needs to be taken to a wholly different scale than it is right now,' Powers told NBC News as she boarded her plane to Guinea. ...
"Power is expected to visit Ebola coordination centers, meet with senior local officials and with U.S. and U.N. personnel on the ground."