Hundreds of Americans have flown to Liberia in the past few days. Thousands more are on the way.
This Ebola corps is a collection of doctors, nurses, scientists, soldiers, aviators, technicians, mechanics and engineers. Many are volunteers with nonprofit organizations or the government, including uniformed doctors and nurses from the little-known U.S. Public Health Service. Most are military personnel, snapping a salute when are assigned to their mission — “Operation United Assistance.” It does not qualify for combat pay, only hardship-duty incentive pay, which is about $5 a day — before taxes.
“We’re going over there to take the fight to the enemy,” said Sgt. Maj. John Kolodgy of the 2nd battalion of the 501st Aviation Regiment, stationed in Fort Bliss, which is sending 85 soldiers this weekend to Liberia to provide airlift capability. “In this situation the enemy is Ebola and the spread of Ebola in Africa.”
The “Iron Knights” from Fort Bliss, in El Paso, will join hundreds of soldiers from the 101st Airborne who departed for Liberia in flights from Kentucky’s Fort Campbell on Thursday and Saturday. The U.S. military presence in West Africa is expected to grow to more than 900 troops by Sunday, a number that will climb to 3,900 in coming weeks.
Global health officials have a plan to bring Ebola victims out of their homes, where they can easily spread the virus, and treat them in health facilities. The 101st Airborne officially took command Saturday of the effort to build 17 Ebola treatment units (ETUs) in Liberia with 100 beds each.
For the military, this is an unusual mission. Past humanitarian efforts have involved events that have already occurred, such as hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes, but this crisis is still developing, generated by a pathogen that is dynamic and unpredictable.
The U.S. military is deploying primarily to Liberia, though the U.S. civilian operations include Guinea, Sierra Leone and other nations in West Africa. President Obama announced Sept. 16 that the military would provide support to the civilian-run effort that had failed to keep the epidemic from growing exponentially. The question now is whether this more muscular response is too little too late.
The outbreak on Saturday officially topped 10,000 cases — 10,141 confirmed or suspected cases and 4,922 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Those are only the official numbers; the affected region includes rural areas and forested regions where disease surveillance has been minimal. The virus has now spread to Mali, where an infected 2-year-old girl who traveled from Guinea with her grandmother died Friday. (A small, unrelated outbreak of Ebola is underway in Congo, which has more experience fighting the disease.)
The WHO said this past week that there is no evidence the infection rate is dropping. A report in the Lancet medical journal said, based on a mathematical model of the outbreak in Liberia, that the U.S. military’s plans to create 1,700 new beds for Ebola patients is inadequate and that there is a “rapidly closing window of opportunity for controlling the outbreak and averting a catastrophic toll.”
‘I’m not afraid of it’
U.S. military personnel will construct ETUs and fly cargo across Liberia but will not directly treat Ebola patients or come into contact with them. That is a point stressed by the Pentagon in trying to assuage the concerns of military families.
Instead, volunteer health-care workers will staff the 17 ETUs, which will not all be completed until December, a Pentagon spokeswoman said. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating the overall effort, said late this week that 3,700 people from around the world had volunteered online to serve in West Africa. But it is unclear how many will make it through the vetting process, which USAID said is being handled by organizations such as the International Medical Corps, Save the Children, the International Organization for Migration and the International Rescue Committee.
A potential complication in recruiting health-care workers to fight Ebola arose Friday when the states of New York, New Jersey and Illinois announced they will quarantine for 21 days travelers from West Africa who have directly dealt with Ebola patients.
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