Pentagon announces rapid response team for Ebola

Washington, Oct 21 (IANS/EFE) The Pentagon during the weekend announced the formation of a specialized 30-person military rapid response team to combat Ebola in the US.

"Once formed, team members will be sent to Ft. Sam Houston in Texas for up to seven days of specialized training in infection control and personal protective equipment," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement.

"That training is expected to start within the next week or so and will be provided by the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases," he said, adding that the team will be comprised of 20 intensive care nurses, five doctors specializing in infectious diseases and five instructors.

"Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered US Northern Command commander Gen. Chuck Jacoby to assemble the team, the formation of which was asked for by the Department of Health and Human Services," Kirby added.

After the conclusion of training, the rapid response team will remain ready for deployment.

Kirby said the team will be available to help US public health officials and will not travel to West Africa, where the epidemic broke out in March and has taken the lives of some 4,400 people since then.

One person, Thomas Eric Duncan, a US citizen of Liberian origin, contracted the disease in his native country and succumbed to it in the US, while three are still hospitalized.

Two nurses who treated Duncan at the Dallas hospital where he died and an NBC reporter repatriated from Liberia after becoming infected are being treated in the country.

The three patients are all in stable condition, according to the doctors overseeing their care.

--IANS/EFE

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