US military personnel on Ebola mission to handle blood samples

Fox News Politics ^ | October 7, 2014 | Justin Fishel

[2ndDivisionVet]

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....

[Mark17]

Then eight years of Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren.

You are correct again sir, unfortunately. That's twice in one thread. I think you are trying to set a record here :-)

I think I have to agree however, I think the Hildebeast will be the first woman president, and it has all the potential to be an utter disaster.

[Pelham]

Our freeper pal lazamataz says that these are commissioned officers of the US Public Health Service, the Commissioned Corps. They are medical personnel with the rank of Navy officers. He knows them and says that this is the sort of job they are trained to do.

[Kartographer]

Per the official FR ‘Obola’ experts there is nothing to worry about as long as they don’t have sex with the infected for three days and then eat their brains under the blood moon.

[Pelham]

“Whether by chance, mistake, or intent, there seems to be a new and not well understood mutation.”

freeper wastoute says that what has happened is a normal virus behavior, ‘attentuation’, rather than mutation. The virus has actually become less lethal but this has had the paradoxical effect of making it more dangerous.

When it was stronger it would kill its victims quickly before they had a chance to mingle and spread it around. Now the infected don’t die right away and they have time to get out of the jungle and into the big cities, or as we have seen onto a plane and to another continent.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3211374/posts?page=17#17

[Dallas59]

I fear that will happen.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[srmorton]

I was talking to a coworker today who is the wife of an officer in the USMC. She is more liberal than most military dependents that I know, but she thinks it is outrageous that Obama would send members of the US military to Liberia to "fight" Ebola. She said that she would not want her husband to be deployed on such a mission.

Although I do not subscribe to conspiracy theories and do not believe that Obama's purpose in sending the troops to Liberia is to deliberately bring more cases of Ebola to the US, it certainly is a possibility that some of the troops could become infected and serve as the means whereby more widespread outbreaks of the disease could occur in the US. I cannot think of a more inappropriate use of the US military!!

[silverleaf]

So they are preparing to set up USAMRID facilities in the field in a primitive 3rd world country, negative pressure rooms, full suits with breathing apparatus and all, when the limits of wearing such suits in the tropics are about 45 minutes

dang our army is just so much smarter about handling ebola than say the 220+ healthcare workers from all countries an agencies who have died since spring

and what do they do when the blood tests positive? admit the patent to die in a bed in an isolation tent, right? Maybe pack em and stack em since there is no way for capacity to keep up. Then incinerate the bodies against all native custom, right?

The natives are going to cooperate with this....maybe not.

Maybe that’s why the 101st airborne is deploying

pres obola is putting our military in a potentially unprecedented humanitarian quagmire that should be policed by african armies, not US armies

[silverleaf]

who says Rice isn’t in charge?

this deployment has “Susan Rice” stamped all over it

[wastoute]

That is what I posted. I suppose the folks on TV are so used to lying with authority they aren’t saying this. OTOH, perhaps they are, they keep saying they have been watching “this strain”. Zaire Ebola.

[exDemMom]

Whether by chance, mistake, or intent, there seems to be a new and not well understood mutation.

No. What has happened is that the virus outbreak occurred in a place where no one had ever seen Ebola before. Medical personnel thought they were dealing with something else for several months before the real cause of disease was found. Also, in that area, cultural practices contributed to the spread of disease, so that there were a lot of cases by the time it was identified. People are very mobile in that area, so, for example, a shaman who died after treating an Ebola patient in her village then spread the disease to 12 others from neighboring villages when they prepared her body for burial. And so on. The virus encountered a perfect storm in which to establish itself.

Every virus mutates, but that does not drastically change virus behavior. In most cases, mutation allows the virus to survive better in its host. It usually pays for that survival by becoming less virulent (that is, it causes milder disease). Whenever anyone is sick with a virus, they actually contain a population of many different viruses, all mutants of the original viruses that caused the infection.

[exDemMom]

There are established protocols for handling infectious viruses. Sample tubes are disinfected on the outside, then placed into plastic bags. Those plastic bags are disinfected on the outside, then placed into a second plastic bag. The second plastic bag is disinfected on the outside and placed into a transport container. The container is closed, disinfected on the outside, and transported. Once at destination, it is placed inside a containment unit (hood or glovebox) and opened.

Notice that frequent disinfection of surfaces is a key feature of transport of hazardous specimens. Opening a sample generates aerosols, but the sample should be in a containment unit at that point. The containment unit is also disinfected before and after use.

[Lazamataz]

Our freeper pal lazamataz says that these are commissioned officers of the US Public Health Service, the Commissioned Corps. They are medical personnel with the rank of Navy officers. He knows them and says that this is the sort of job they are trained to do.

Correct.

Damned good, competent, awesome people, too.

[SisterK]

Now we understand the purging of the military (other than deterring a tempting military coup)

[SisterK]

yep....these guys are being set up

[SisterK]

this is the sort of job they are trained to do....awesome. since no medical personnel have been infected so far S/

[Redleg Duke]

Initially, we were told that our troops would not be in contact with ebola victims, but only to provide infrastructure construction and maintenance.

Of course, President Obola was lying about this.

[ansel12]

Do you have a source for your claims.

Please link to it.

[silverleaf]

what “claims”?
that USAMRID is expert in dealing with this disease- in strictly controlled laboratory conditions that won’t exist in field structures in Liberia?

That 211+ health care workers fully aware of the risks of managing this disease have still died from ebola?

That the 101st airborne is among those deploying?

what “claims”?

Do your own homework before spouting platitudes about how our military is experienced at dealing with this situation. My bet is you can’t identify the mission of 4000 troops ordered to a hot zone any better than I, by reading between the lines of obama announcements and those of the Pentagon. which seem to be changing every week.

[ansel12]

I would like to read your source for the facilities that they will be working out of and that they only allow for 45 minutes of wearing the suit, for instance.

You said that the 101st Airborne Division is deploying, did you mean the 700 individuals from that Division that are going there as the headquarters element to coordinate relief operations?