http://thehill.com/policy/defense/220014-pentagon-us-troops-to-have-contact-with-ebola-virusPentagon: US troops to have contact with Ebola virus
By Kristina Wong and Sarah Ferris - 10/07/14 01:30 PM EDT
Specialized U.S. troops setting up mobile labs in Africa to test for Ebola are likely to come into contact with the deadly virus, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
U.S. troops already have set up three mobile labs, and there are plans to set up four more.
The Pentagon said the troops are highly trained and that those working in the laboratories will wear protective suits. They will also receive pre-deployment training and be constantly monitored, Army Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of U.S. Africa Command, said at a Pentagon briefing.
“I am confident that we can ensure our service members' safety and the safety of their families and the American people,” he said.
The labs were not initially a part of the Obama administration’s plan for fighting Ebola in Africa, however. The announcement illustrates the dangers for U.S. troops being sent to the front line to fight the outbreak, which has raised concerns among top lawmakers such as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
So far, 350 military personnel and 130 other U.S. workers are on the ground in West Africa, which the White House called the largest-ever U.S. response to an international health crisis.
President Obama has said as many as 4,000 troops could be sent to the region, and the Pentagon said the majority would not arrive until mid-November.
The troops involved in the mobile-lab effort will initially number between 12 and 16, Rodriguez said. Three to four troops would work in each lab. Rodriguez initially said the troops setting up the labs would also come into direct contact with Ebola victims.
“The mobile [labs] are testing people, OK? And some of them will have the Ebola virus,” Rodriguez said.
But shortly after Rodriguez spoke, the Pentagon walked those comments back and said the U.S. troops would only be looking at blood samples in the labs, not people.
“Those people are trained to the very highest level of operating in a nuclear, biological, and chemical arena, and they are tested continually, and they are the ones who are testing all the people,” Rodriguez said. “They will be the primary ones that come in contact with anybody.”
While those running the laboratories will wear a full biological protective suit, Rodriguez said the rest of the troops would wear lighter gear, including gloves and masks. He said those personnel will not come into contact with the general population.
“They don't need the whole suit, as such, because they're not going to be in contact with any of the people,” he said.
If troops are infected with Ebola, he said, they would come back to the United States.
“If somebody does contract Ebola and becomes symptomatic, they will be handled in — just like you've seen on the recent ones who came back on an aircraft that was specially designed to bring them back, and they'll go back to one of the centers that is specially designed to handle the Ebola patients right now,” he said.
Rodriguez said the U.S. troops could be deployed for a year or longer.
“We'll have to play that by ear, because it's all about the function of the transmission rates and when that curve starts going down," he said, adding that the “critical” target was to get about 70 percent of those infected into a treatment facility.
“We're going to stay as long as we're needed, but not longer than we're needed,” Rodriguez said.
He added that costs for those troops over the next six months will be about $750 million.
The global community has grown increasingly worried that the disease, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated could kill as many as 1.4 million people by next year, will spread outside that continent.
A Liberian man with Ebola remains in critical condition at a Dallas hospital, and a nurse in Spain has tested positive for the virus. More than 3,000 people have died from the disease in Africa.
Obama on Monday said the U.S. would introduce new travel restrictions to try to prevent people with the disease from coming to U.S. shores.
The president has said the military would not be providing healthcare to Ebola patients. When the plan to use the military was announced on Sept. 16, the White House said efforts would “entail command and control, logistics, expertise, training and engineering support.”
The only time U.S. officials had mentioned the possibility of U.S. military personnel coming into contact with Ebola victims was in the context of a trained public health corps overseeing care for other healthcare workers had become infected.
“The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is preparing to deploy 65 Commissioned Corps officers to Liberia to manage and staff a previously announced Department of Defense hospital to care for healthcare workers who become ill,” the White House said in September. “The deployment roster will consist of administrators, clinicians, and support staff.”
There was no mention of direct diagnostics at any of the labs. Rodriguez said Tuesday that the labs “were not in the initial plan.”
The Obama administration has downplayed the health risk to military personnel who will work on the ground.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that U.S. troops would not be at risk of contracting the disease.
“The troops going over there are going to be for logistic purposes,” Fauci said. “They’re well trained. They will not be in direct risk of contact with individuals, and even if they are, the protocols are in place to prevent spread.”
U.S. military are expected to play a crucial role in the fight against Ebola. In West Africa, the inherent danger of working with Ebola patients has made recruitment difficult, and waves of volunteers have abandoned their posts out of fear and exhaustion.
Though the African Union deployed what it termed "healthkeepers" last month, nearly all healthcare providers on the ground are volunteers.
Defense officials said their fight against Ebola has cost $750 million. The money has come from the Department of Defense’s Overseas Contingency Operations budget for 2014. It is likely the Pentagon will need more money as it expands its response.
Rodriguez would not put a cap on the amount of troops needed, adding that the Pentagon's needs could change over time.
“This is not a small effort and a short period of time,” he said.
