Originally published October 9 2014
Several dozen US troops could be directly exposed to Ebola patients in Liberia
by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) It looks like the U.S. invasion into West Africa has taken a new surprise turn after the Pentagon announced that several dozen American troops will now be tasked with handling blood and fluid samples taken from potential Ebola victims. This is after the government promised that none of the now-4,000 soldiers being sent to the region would come into direct contact with Ebola victims, the implication being that this included contaminated bodily fluids.
During a recent press conference, head of U.S. Africa Command and Army General David Rodriguez explained that as many as seven testing labs will be constructed. Each one will be managed and operated by three or four trained personnel, which translates into as many as 28 American troops who will soon face possible direct infection from the various handled materials.
"The testing labs are manned by highly skilled and trained personnel from the U.S. Naval Medical Research Center," stated Rodriquez to reporters. "These labs provide 24-hour turnaround results on samples received from area clinics and health-care providers, with the capability to process up to 100 samples per day."
Soldiers to receive 'protective gear' already shown not to work
Re-emphasizing the agency's official stance that the risk of infection is minimal for these soldiers, Rodriquez explained that all lab personnel will wear full protective gear. But if it's anything like the supposedly impenetrable protective gear worn by health workers in Spain, one of whom recently contracted Ebola, this is hardly reassuring.
According to information obtained from The Washington Post (WP), the full protective suits worn by health workers at the Carlos III Hospital where the first European Ebola infection was transmitted failed in numerous ways, despite having been declared as "impermeable."
Photos released to the Spanish newspaper El Pais, explains WP, revealed that latex gloves were attached to the suits with tape. These suits were also reportedly not equipped to handle autonomous breathing, an absolute necessity when dealing with Biosafety Level 4 situations such as the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
"The suits used perfectly meet protocol, as well as the mandatory protection requirements for this disease," insisted Yolanda Fuentes, deputy director of the Carlos III Hospital, to the Spanish media, affirming the widespread bungling of the situation by the international community.
US soldiers could bring more Ebola back
The fact that the Pentagon is changing its story on how American soldiers will be used in West Africa is concerning enough, as it demonstrates a high degree of dishonesty and deceit from our leadership. But now American soldiers are being placed directly in harm's way with empty promises that they won't contract Ebola, when all the evidence suggests that they could.
Nancy Writebol, one of the American missionaries who contracted Ebola while volunteering in Liberia, is another example of the questionable level of protection provided by full protective body gear. She was also exposed to the virus, despite the fact that fellow doctors and nurses were supposedly following all the necessary protocol.
What she has since confessed says a lot about the level of danger to which American soldiers will be exposed.
"I never felt like I was unsafe and I never felt like I walked into a situation where I was being exposed," she explained to Science Magazine.
"I was on the low-risk side of things. I never was in the crisis or the Ebola center. I was always on the outside. I made sure doctors and nurses were dressed properly before they went in, and I decontaminated them before they went out. We kept a close check on each other about whether people felt safe."
To learn more about how to prepare for a potential Ebola crisis here in the U.S., be sure to check out:
BioDefense.com.
Sources:
http://www.businessweek.com
http://www.theguardian.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com
http://www.stripes.com
http://www.cbsnews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
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