USA Basketball cancels Senegal trip amid Ebola fears

(Image credit: David Becker/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

A planned visit to the Senegalese capital of Dakar is no longer in the cards for Team USA, reports the Chicago Tribune.

USA Basketball had planned an August 27 arrival in Senegal, where the team was to conduct basketball clinics and tour the capital ahead of its World Cup opener in Spain three days later. But, "the circumstances just don't allow us to go," Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball's chairman, said.

He cited the World Health Organization's Thursday statements, which described the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as "vastly underestimated." WHO officials said while the official death toll stands at 1,069 people, staff on the ground at outbreak sites believe the number of people infected or killed by the disease could be much higher. The Center for Disease Control has not reported any Ebola cases in Senegal, Colangelo noted, but the country's proximity to Guinea, which has recorded cases since the outbreak began in March, heightened the team's concerns.

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Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

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