U.S. Troops in Africa May Come in Contact with Ebola Patients
By AFP.
US troops deployed to West Africa to fight the Ebola outbreak could stay up to a year, depending on how quickly the virus can be contained, a top general said Tuesday.
The head of the US military’s Africa Command, General David Rodriguez, also rejected criticism that the American response to the crisis has been too slow, saying the troop deployment had to be designed to take into account Liberia’s limited infrastructure.
About 350 US troops have arrived in Liberia and Senegal so far as part of a 3,200-strong force due to help with logistical support, training for health workers and mobile test labs.
Asked how long American troops would remain in the region, Rodriguez told reporters: “I’m sure it’ll be about a year … at this point, but that’s just a guess.”
He said that “we’ll have to play that by ear” and see how fast transmission rates decline.
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US military personnel on Ebola mission to handle blood samples
By Justin Fishel.
The U.S. military mission to combat Ebola in West Africa is facing questions about the serious health risks American troops will encounter in heading to the epicenter of the deadly outbreak.
According to officials, a small group of trained military medical technicians on the ground will not be required to make direct contact with patients infected with the Ebola virus. However, they will have to handle infected blood samples, which Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday could be just as dangerous, if not more.
Already, three mobile-testing labs, staffed by three or four technicians each, have been deployed in Liberia as part of Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military’s effort to combat the Ebola virus. Four more labs have been requested.
Pentagon officials say the servicemembers on these small teams are the only individuals who will be intentionally handling any raw material that could be infected.
Gen. David Rodriguez, the head of U.S. Africa Command, told Pentagon reporters on Tuesday that these teams are trained to take all the necessary precautions.
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Ebola outbreak: Spread of deadly disease across Europe is ‘unavoidable’, warns WHO chief
By James Rush.
The spread of Ebola across Europe is “quite unavoidable”, the World Health Organisation has warned as four people were in hospital after a Spanish nurse became the first person known to have contracted the virus outside Africa.
WHO European director Zsuzsanna Jakab has said while more cases will spread in Europe, the continent should be well prepared to control the disease.
Health officials in Spain today said four people – the nurse, her husband and two others – were being monitored in hospital in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.
“Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely,” Ms Jakab told Reuters.
“It is quite unavoidable … that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around,” she said.
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