[...] the Obama administration has requested $600 million for the CDC to implement what it calls the Global Health Security Agenda, working with an international coalition to shore up disease detection in high-risk countries and guard against the next contagion. Just in recent years, the world has seen bird flu sicken people in Southeast Asia, the respiratory killer SARS spread from China, the 2009 flu pandemic, growing threats from antibiotic-resistant germs, and SARS' new cousin in the Middle East named MERS. The Obama administration kicked off the global health security project in February at a White House meeting with representatives of more than two dozen countries — unaware that Ebola already was quietly brewing in Guinea. For its part in the international collaboration, the U.S.