By Cheryl Pellerin
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2014 – The Defense Department’s
contribution to the fight against Ebola in Liberia is taking shape as more
service members and building supplies arrive in Monrovia, Pentagon spokesman
Army Col. Steve Warren said here today.
DoD is working in support of the U.S. Agency for
International Development, or USAID, the lead agency for the U.S. government’s
range of efforts against the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
According to the World Health Organization, or WHO, the
ministries of health in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have reported 6,553
probable, confirmed and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease and 3,083 deaths
in the Ebola outbreak as of Sept. 23.
Among the three nations, WHO notes, Liberia has reported the
highest number of cases, at 3,458, and deaths, at 1,830.
U.S. service members in Monrovia
Warren said that about 150 U.S. service members are now in
the Liberian capital Monrovia, conducting a range of activities in support of
USAID, as U.S. Africa Command sets up a joint force command headquarters there
to support U.S. military activities.
Army Maj. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, commander of U.S. Army
Africa, Africom’s Army component, commands the joint center and Operation
United Assistance.
Warren said a 25-bed hospital arrived over the weekend, its
parts distributed among three C-17 aircraft. The hospital, which he said came
from Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, will be dedicated to treating health
care workers who become infected with Ebola.
“There's a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for today,”
Warren added, “and we expect the 25-bed hospital will be up and running
sometime in the middle of October.”
Forty more personnel also arrived over the weekend, he said.
Thirty-four will be dedicated to setting up the hospital, and six will set up a
mobile laboratory.
Ebola treatment units forthcoming
“We are planning to set up 17 Ebola treatment units, each
with a 100-bed capacity,” Warren said. “These have not yet begun to flow in,
but we do anticipate having the initial [units] set up and functional in the
next several weeks.” As they are completed, he added, the units will be turned
over to the Liberian government and staffed by local and international health
care providers, not by military personnel.
WHO reported that 360 Ebola treatment beds were available in
Monrovia as of Sept. 21. Completing the 17 new units will add 1,700 more
treatment beds to help the desperately sick population in that city and beyond.
Warren said the Operation United Assistance personnel also
will set up a training facility for health care workers near Monrovia, as well
as an intermediate staging base in Senegal.
“The president has made it very clear that this is a
national security priority,” Warren said. “The Department of Defense is moving
as fast as it possibly can to support USAID in this effort.”
Global Health Security Agenda
On Sept. 26, President Barack Obama hosted representatives
of 44 countries at the White House for a summit on the Global Health Security
Agenda.
The GHSA encompasses a group of capabilities that all
countries eventually must have to make the world safer and more secure. As
nations gain capabilities, such as disease surveillance and reporting, they
will be able to act together as an international community to prevent, detect
and respond to all infectious disease outbreaks.
“Ebola will not be the last biological threat we face,” the
chair of the GHSA, this year the United States, said in a statement released
after the summit.
“Even today, in other parts of the world, highly pathogenic
avian influenza, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus, and
drug-resistant bacteria continue to pose serious threats to the health and
well-being of all people,” the statement said.
“The same resolve we are demonstrating in the face of
Ebola,” it added, “must be sustained so that robust health systems are in place
to enable a more rapid and effective response to the next outbreak, no matter
what the source.”
The summit announced over 100 new commitments to implement
11 action packages, including specific targets and indicators that will be used
as a basis for making sure that national, regional and global capacities are
developed and maintained over the long term.
The action packages and commitments made to them will form
the core GHSA work over the next five years, the statement said.
Grand Challenge for Development
After the summit, Obama announced a Grand Challenge to help
health care workers fight Ebola. On Sept. 27, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah
posted a notice about it on his blog.
“This Grand Challenge for Development will unite the global
community in the quest for ingenious ideas that deliver practical and
cost-effective innovations in a matter of months, not years,” he wrote.
He asked for new ideas to help ensure that treatment sites,
communal transport units and burial sites don’t become infection sources, and
for new solutions that strengthen the safety and increase the comfort of
protective suits worn by health care workers -- from improving the fabric
design to measuring a health worker's temperature and heart rate.
“We need new ways to simplify clinical processes, including
point-of-care diagnostics. And we need new tools that continue to create a safer
clinical environment, including improving infection control and waste
disposal,” Shah wrote.
With international partners, he added, the United States
will translate the expertise and ingenuity of scientists, innovators, engineers
and students worldwide into real solutions.
“With your bold thinking and engagement we can give health
workers the tools they need to win this fight,” Shah said.
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