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Although publicly commenting on current events is not generally on a professional athlete’s to-do list, news of the recent Ebola outbreak has caused Miami Heat players Luol Deng and Chris Bosh to speak up.

Raised in England but born in South Sudan, Luol Deng has been a part of many African relief projects during his career.

“I have been all over Africa. I’ve been to Senegal, I’ve been to Nigeria,” he told the Sun Sentinel’s Ira Winderman. “I’ve been to Ghana, a lot of times. Sometimes you hear about things. I haven’t been there this summer and I haven’t been there in a while, so all I know is what I hear. But I’m sure it’s affecting everybody’s way of living.”

While Deng has not visited Liberia and Sierra Leone, two countries that have made the most headlines regarding the Ebola epidemic, the virus has still spread among the continent. Because of this, many have raised the question of whether or not the United States should close it’s border’s; however, Deng thinks the crisis itself should be our first priority.

“The only thing I want people to do is just really find a way to fix it and cure it,” he stated. “All the other stuff, that’s not on me to fight rules or speak against anything. My whole thing is this is affecting a lot of lives and a lot of people, and so whatever we could do together to find a solution to ending it, because right now it’s getting worse every day. People are ignoring it, but it’s going to reach everybody. I just really hope that more action would take place to do something to end it.”

And Deng is not the only Heat member to have a personal connection to the matter.

Having just traveled to Ghana this offseason, Chris Bosh first heard the news shortly after arriving home.

“By the time I got back home, that’s when we started hearing of things,” Bosh explained on Friday. “I was like, ‘Man, we were one country over.’ It’s kind of scary.”

On top of this, his hometown of Dallas, Texas has recently been hit with several Ebola cases via infected nurses.

“I think it’s gotten the attention of everybody,” stated Bosh. “Anytime you have a potential outbreak situation, and I’m from Dallas, it’s kind of a unique situation.”