 |
Blood samples from patients suspected of having
the Ebola virus disease are prepared for transportation to Freetown for
testing, at the Port Loko District Hospital September 27, 2014.
(Reuters/Christopher Black)
|
The
United States may send nearly 4,000 troops to West Africa in the coming weeks
in an effort to contribute relief in the fight against the Ebola virus outbreak
in the region, according to the Pentagon, RT reports.
With around 200 US military personnel
already in the region, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby announced
earlier this week that the Department of Defense was planning on sending on
sending 1,400 reinforcements to Liberia, of which around half will consist of
combat engineers tasked with coordinating the construction of 17 Ebola
treatment centers that will supply a total of 1,700 beds.
On
Friday, Kirby updated that figure and said around 3,600 troops in all could be
coming to West Africa.
"We
project that there could be nearly 4,000 troops deployed in support of this
mission but we are obviously assessing the requirements on a daily basis,"
Kirby said, according to Reuters.
Earlier this week, Stars and Stripes
reported that installations sending troops for this effort include the 1st
Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Joint Task Force Carson at Fort
Carson, Colorado,
The other half of the initial 1,400-troop
surge, from the 101st Airborne Division based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, will
make up the headquarters staff of a joint forces command center.
The
1,400 troops will arrive “in
waves,” Kirby said, to assist in logistical support and
construction of medical-treatment facilities.
 |
A Doctors Without Borders health worker takes
off his protective gear under the surveillance of a colleague at a treatment
facility for Ebola victims in Monrovia September 29, 2014. (Reuters/James
Giahyue)
|
The virus is spreading rapidly in the West African countries of Guinea,
Liberia, and Sierra Leone, claiming more than 3,000 lives since March,
according to the World Health Organization. Smaller outbreaks have occurred in
Nigeria and Senegal.
Kirby said the troops headed to West
Africa will receive full training on how to protect themselves against the
virus before they arrive on the ground. They will be sent with full protective
gear and are not expected to be in contact with patients, he added.
“US military personnel are not and will
not be providing direct care to Ebola patients,”
he said.
Kirby asserted that the US military is
deploying troops and equipment to the affected region as quickly as it can, and
that the Pentagon has only a supporting role to the State Department’s US
Agency for International Development, which is coordinating the US government’s
relief role.
US
President Barack Obama first pledged US military assistance to fight the Ebola
outbreak in mid-September, as RT previously reported.
 |
A burial team wearing protective clothing
prepare the body of a person suspected to have died of the Ebola virus for
interment, in Freetown September 28, 2014. (Reuters/Christopher Black)
|
This week, the first Ebola patient
diagnosed in the US was treated
in Dallas after traveling from
his native Liberia. In addition, an NBC News cameraman was also diagnosed
with the virus while on assignment in
Liberia. He, a US citizen, is being sent back to the US for care.
Meanwhile, the chief of the United
Nations’ Ebola mission said on Tuesday that the situation is a race against
time, and that the epidemic is the worst disaster he has ever witnessed.
“The longer it moves around
a human hosts in the virulent melting pot that is West Africa, the more chances
increase that it could mutate,” Anthony Banbury, the Secretary General’s
special representative, told The Telegraph. “It is a
nightmare scenario [that it could become airborne], and unlikely, but it can’t
be ruled out.”
No comments:
Post a Comment