Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered the military to put together a special “strike team” to aid civilian health workers in the event of future Ebola cases in America.
The “strike team” will consist of 30 members and will include “20 critical care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious diseases and five trainers in infectious disease protocols.”
According to Mail Online, Hagel spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby, says the team is specifically being put together for outbreaks in America and “won’t be sent to West Africa or elsewhere over seas.”
The US has already sent over 500 personnel to Liberia and Senegal and the number of personnel is supposed to hit 3,000 in the coming weeks. However, their duties will remain separate from those of the “strike team.”
On September 30, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first “laboratory-confirmed case” of Ebola in the United States. The patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, died on October 8.
Amber Joy Vinson, a nurse who treated Duncan, then tested positive for a Ebola. But not until after she flew on a passenger jet–Frontier Flight 1143–from Cleveland to Dallas. On October 20 Breitbart News reported that a Marine who was also aboard flight 1143 entered “voluntary quarantine” to be sure he had not contracted Ebola.
The Marine, who remains unnamed, is stationed at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. He has a family member in an elementary school in Fort Worth. Both the school and the parents of children attending the school have been notified of the Marine’s voluntary quarantine.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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