[AnNahar] U.S. troops heading to Liberia to help fight the Ebola epidemic will help train health workers but will have no "direct contact" with patients infected with the virus, the Pentagon said Friday.The 3,000-strong contingent due to deploy to Liberia will be focused on training health workers in the country and setting up facilities to help West African countries tackle the crisis, front man Rear Admiral John Kirby told a news conference.
The troops will carry protective gear but "there's no intent right now for them to have direct contact with patients," Kirby said.
The first U.S. military cargo plane arrived in Monrovia on Thursday as part of the U.S. effort to help fight the epidemic, he said, after President Barack Obama
I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody...
this week issued an appeal for urgent international action.
"Right now, the effort does not include U.S. military personnel treating Ebola patients," Kirby said. "We're going to be in support of other health care workers that are experts at doing this."
Kirby said a C-17 aircraft with equipment and seven service members landed on Thursday, with two more cargo planes expected this weekend in Monrovia carrying 45 personnel.
The small team will then set up a headquarters for Major General Darryl Williams, who will oversee the U.S. mission to train local health workers and establish additional medical facilities, he said.
Military engineers are due to build new Ebola treatment centers in affected areas, the B.O. regime said this week, while U.S. officials would help recruit medical personnel to work at the units.
The State Department meanwhile said it supported the steps being taken by Sierra Leone to halt the spread of the disease by imposing a three-day nationwide shut-down.
"We are pleased to hear that the campaign is proceeding calmly and that the people of Sierra Leone are overwhelming cooperating by staying at home and engaging with the outreach teams," a State Department official told Agence La Belle France Presse, adding the U.S. embassy had been closed to comply with the campaign.
The Pentagon has spent $30 million so far to help provide a field hospital and other equipment and has requested up to one billion dollars from Congress to combat the outbreak, which would require shifting funds from other department programs, according to Kirby.
Obama unveiled the troop deployment to West Africa earlier this week, issuing an international call to action to prevent the virus from spreading "exponentially."
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has welcomed the U.S. mission and said she hoped Washington's move would prompt other countries to provide more support to address the epidemic, which has killed more than 2,600 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone this year.