The U.S. Military Mission Against Ebola

The U.S. Military Mission Against Ebola

This isn’t a novel effort—the military medical system has plenty of experience stopping disease from spreading.

By Jonathan D. Moreno And Stephen N. Xenakis in the Wall Street Journal

 

Military health-care forces under Africom, the United States Africa Command, have been deployed to assist Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in setting up preventive health services and treatment centers for the Ebola epidemic. The mission of the U.S. military, charged with defending our country’s national security, sometimes includes responding to epidemics that could threaten America and its allies. It has the experience and the infrastructure to do so.

The U.S. Army first sent advance teams to West Africa in early summer to prepare for humanitarian missions and assist local governments in dealing with Ebola. Military planners have long tracked developments, like infectious epidemics, that could destabilize countries in the region. The military now is helping local authorities build treatment centers, train local health-care providers and support staff, and establish effective command and control of health resources across the region.

In 1995 the U.S. Army established the U.S. Army Public Health Command (formerly the Center for Public Health and Preventive Medicine) to anticipate, identify and monitor health consequences of war and instability. Today combat forces and U.S. military installations around the world have units staffed by veterinarians, public-health technicians, environmental-science officers and physicians to control threats to the health of American soldiers and surrounding military communities. Sophisticated medical-intelligence agencies track the emergence of diseases and environmental disasters and changes in environmental conditions that impact security. Military specialists have worked closely for many years with officials from the Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC to protect against SARS, H1N1, and other infectious agents that could threaten U.S. citizens here and abroad.

Not unreasonably, Americans worry that U.S. service members may contract Ebola. This risk cannot be waived aside, but risk is part of any dangerous mission. Military medicine focuses intensely on preserving the health and effectiveness of America’s armed forces wherever they serve.

Another worry is that U.S. troops could bring the virus back to our shores. But the military routinely imposes strict constraints on the movements of individuals in their command. In the case of Ebola, there is a 10-day window prior to allowing anyone to return to the U.S., which is followed by 21 days of close monitoring. As has been reported, U.S. troops returning from West Africa are already being quarantined in Italy.

In the absence of vaccines or treatments known to be effective against Ebola, the most important goal is to prevent the disease from spreading at its source. The U.S. military medical system has considerable experience in prevention, often under difficult conditions. In the first Gulf War (1990-91), for example, air conditioning was installed in tents to prevent infestation by sandflies whose bite could cause leishmaniasis a parasitic disease that causes fever and ulcers of the skin and gastrointestinal tract. In Panama in 1989 the antibiotic doxycycline was provided prophylactically to all personnel at the Jungle Training Center to prevent outbreaks of leptospirosis, a bacterial infection that can cause severe bleeding of the lungs and brain.

The U.S. military was the first to vaccinate service members against meningococcal meningitis in 1971. Vaccination against this dangerous bacterial infection is now common in U.S. colleges and universities. It also vaccinates all recruits against adenovirus, a disease that can be fatal in some circumstances.

Some of these preventive measures also represented important medical advances that have saved countless lives. Perhaps the most famous case was that of Major Walter Reed’s Yellow Fever Commission in Cuba in 1900, which verified that a mosquito was the vector of this dread disease—one that had caused horrific epidemics since the founding of the United States—and ensured that American soldiers would not be carriers when they returned home.

Although the current mission in West Africa does not include medical research, several experimental Ebola vaccines are already under development. The U.S. military facilities in place could serve as vaccination centers once there is a vaccine that’s shown to be safe. The U.S. military deployment to this afflicted region could turn out to have incalculable benefits.

Mr. Moreno is a professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Dr. Xenakis, a retired Army brigadier general, is an adjunct professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.