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Pentagon announces Ebola rapid-response team for U.S. cases of virus

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Nurse Kaci Hickox defies quarantine orders by leaving her home in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend. State officials are going to court to keep Hickox in quarantine for the remainder of her 21-day incubation period for Ebola that ends on Nov. 10.   (Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press)
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Barack Obama hugs Dallas nurse Nina Pham, who was declared Ebola free. Pham was the first nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.  (Olivier Douliery / EPA)
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Dallas-area resident James Faulk displays his Ebola-themed Halloween decorations in University Park, Texas. Faulk has set up a Twitter account and a website in an effort to raise money for Doctors Without Borders.  (Tom Pennington / Getty Images)
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United States Postal Service worker Keven Ngo makes a delivery to West 147th Street in New York, while wearing a protective mask. Ngo said that he didn’t typically wear a mask but, since Dr. Craig Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola, he had begun wearing the mask for his protection.   (Bryan Thomas / Getty Images)
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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, left, speaks as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio listens during a press conference in the governor’s office on the status of Ebola patient Dr. Craig Spencer and New York’s new Ebola policies.  (Jason Szenes / EPA)
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People walk past the entrance to Bellvue Hospital in New York City, where a 5-year-old was brought early Oct. 27 after showing Ebola-like symptoms after recently returning from West Africa.  (Andrew Burton / Getty Images)
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A mourner cries during a memorial service for Thomas Eric Duncan Oct. 18.  (Nell Redmond / Associated Press)
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The Carnival Magic docks at Pier 25 in Galveston, Texas, early Oct. 19. A passenger aboard the cruise ship had been in voluntary isolation in her cabin because of potential contact with the Ebola virus. The woman works as a lab technician at Dallas’ Presbyterian Hospital and may have come into contact with clinical samples belonging to Thomas Eric Duncan, who died after contracting the disease.  (Jennifer Reynolds / Associated Press)
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Christine Wade, a registered nurse at the University of Texas Medical Branch, greets Carnival Magic passengers disembarking in Galveston, Texas, Oct. 19. Nurses met passengers with Ebola virus fact sheets and to answer any questions.   (Jennifer Reynolds / Associated Press)
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A man in a Hazmat suit cleans the station where a person became sick at a DART train station in Dallas Oct. 18. The person had supposedly been at the same apartment complex as where Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was staying.   (Larry W. Smith / EPA)
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Ebola patient Amber Vinson arrives by ambulance at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Oct. 15, 2014. She is the second nurse to contract Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital while treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan, who died.   (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
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The ambulance carrying Ebola patient Amber Vinson arrives at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. A joint emergency isolation unit administered by the hospital and the CDC has successfully treated two Americans stricken by Ebola.   (David Tulis / Associated Press)
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President Obama, joined via teleconference by Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks to the media during a meeting with members of his team coordinating the government’s response to Ebola cases.   (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)
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The Frontier Airlines plane that Amber Vinson took from Cleveland to Dallas on Monday flies out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport on Wednesday. It was decontaminated twice before it left for Denver without any passengers, said Jacqueline Mayo, an airport spokeswoman.  (Tony Dejak / Associated Press)
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A “no trespassing” notice is posted outside the apartment of a healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from the disease.  (Brandon Wade / Associated Press)
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The breach in protocol that allowed Texas nurse Nina Pham (inset) to contract Ebola may have exposed others.  (Associated Press / Getty Images)
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A worker cleaning up outside the apartment building of an Ebola-infected hospital worker in Dallas.

  (LM Otero / Associated Press)
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A patient at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston does not have Ebola, the hospital concluded Monday.  (Steven Senne / Associated Press)
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A hazardous materials worker puts up a plastic sheet before starting to clean the apartment of a hospital worker Sunday.   (LM Otero / Associated Press)
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A man dressed in protective clothing leaves after treating the front porch and sidewalk of a Dallas apartment on Sunday where a second person diagnosed with the Ebola virus resides.  (Mike Stone / Getty Images)
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Dallas police stand guard at a two-story tan brick apartment building, the home of a healthcare worker who has tested positive for Ebola after caring for an infected Liberian man.  (Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)
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Media and bystanders look on outside the home of a healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola in Dallas. The worker had cared for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan.  (Louis DeLuca / Associated Press)
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Dr. Daniel Varga of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital answers questions Sunday about a healthcare worker who contracted Ebola in Dallas.

  (Brandon Wade / Associated Press)
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Johnson Nellon, left, and his brother Thomas Nellon smile at their mother as they arrive from Liberia at John F. Kennedy International Airport.  (Craig Ruttle / Associated Press)
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A Dallas County sheriff’s deputy arrives Oct. 8 for treatment at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The deputy, who had visited the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan had been staying, was released after he was found not to have Ebola, officials said.  (Louis DeLuca / Associated Press)
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A Dallas hospital sent Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan home with antibiotics, even though the hospital knew that he had recently arrived from Liberia. Duncan died on Oct. 8.  (Wilmot Chayee / Associated Press)
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Ashoka Mukpo is placed into an ambulance Oct. 6 after arriving in Omaha, Neb. The American video journalist, who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, was taken to Nebraska Medical Center for treatment.   (James R. Burnett / Associated Press)
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Nearly 200 airline cabin cleaners walk on a picket line at LaGuardia International Airport. The workers went on strike out of concern over health and safety issues including the possible exposure to the Ebola virus.   (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
By W.J. Hennigan
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Reporting from Washington — 

The Pentagon announced Sunday it is putting together a 30-person rapid-response team that could provide quick medical support to civilian healthcare workers if additional cases of the Ebola virus are diagnosed in the United States.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered U.S. Northern Command Commander Gen. Chuck Jacoby to assemble the team, which was requested by the Department of Health and Human Services, said Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby.

The team will consist of 20 critical-care nurses, five doctors trained in infectious disease, and five trainers in infectious-disease protocols.

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“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,” Kirby said in a statement. “That training is expected to start within the next week or so and will be provided by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.”

Once the team is trained, they will remain in Texas in a “prepare to deploy” status for 30 days, available to be sent to other U.S. locations as required, he said. The team will not be sent to West Africa, where the Ebola virus is running rampant, or elsewhere overseas.

The epidemic has killed about 4,500 people in West Africa since last spring, according to the World Health Organization.

The U.S. military has plans underway to help build 17 Ebola isolation and treatment units with 100 beds each at several locations in Liberia by early December as part of a $750-million operation to help stem the spread of the deadly virus.

Troops have also built a 25-bed hospital in Liberia for health workers who come down with the disease. It has been completed but is not yet operational, officials said.

More than 500 U.S. military personnel are now building the infrastructure in Liberia, the country hardest hit by the disease. Other U.S. troops are working at an airport cargo facility in Dakar, Senegal.

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The Pentagon has said that up to 4,000 troops potentially could be deployed to West Africa to deal with the spread of the Ebola virus.

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World & Nation
W.J. Hennigan

W.J. Hennigan covered the Pentagon and national security issues from Washington, D.C., before leaving the Los Angeles Times bureau in November 2017. While there, he reported on war, counter-terrorism, and the lives of American service members from more than two dozen countries and previously covered the aerospace and defense industry from Los Angeles. Hennigan earned awards from the National Press Club, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and was a contributor to the Los Angeles Times coverage of the terror attacks in San Bernardino that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2016.

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