Reuters adds:airazurxtror wrote:Washington (CNN) --
U.S. Army personnel will continue to be placed in 21-day quarantine as they return home to their base in Italy, according to Williams, commander of US Army forces in Africa, who spoke to CNN from within the isolation area by military video conference.
The quarantine procedure is meant to reassure both military families and the Italian government that the US is doing everything it can to protect troops, the families and the surrounding communities, Williams said. He noted the Italians had expressed concerns about troops returning to Vicenza after serving in Liberia.
Williams outlined to CNN the quarantine conditions in detail. He said food is left in a room by a team that departs before the soldiers in isolation enter the room. Then Williams and his team come in to eat and leave. After that the utensils - generally plastic ware - are collected and burned. The troops are taking their own temperature twice a day.
As the initial U.S. military commander in Liberia, Williams traveled extensively in Liberia, but said numerous precautions were taken for all the troops. He noted he never came into direct contract with people ill with Ebola but did tour some Ebola testing areas. He said he generally kept a three foot distance and constantly washed his hands. At one point during his time in the hot zone his temperature was taken eight times a day.
There are more than 1,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Africa, with as many as 3,000 more set to deploy, and many of them may not come into contact with local citizens or military on ground. The major complication however may be the sheer logistics of keeping such a large number of people in 21 day isolation.
... There has been a growing chorus of critics, including public health experts, the United Nations, medical charities and even the White House, denouncing mandatory quarantines as scientifically unjustified and an obstacle to fighting the disease at its source in West Africa. "At CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we base our decisions on science and experience. We base our decisions on what we know and what we learn. And as the science and experience changes, we adopt and adapt our guidelines and recommendations," dr. Frieden said.
... Medical professionals say Ebola is difficult to catch and is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person and not transmitted by asymptomatic people. Ebola is not airborne.
... Doctor Frieden (CDC) said high-risk people include healthcare workers who suffer a needle stick while caring for an Ebola patient or who tend to a patient without protective gear. He said returning health workers at “some risk” would have their health monitored daily by a local health department official who would check their temperature, look for signs of fatigue and review their daily activity plans to determine what activity “makes sense for that individual, at that time.”
President Barack Obama's spokesman, Josh Earnest, made clear Monday that the White House was not thrilled that individual states had implemented quarantines viewed as unfair to returning healthcare workers, though he acknowledged the states' rights to set them. "We want to make sure that whatever policies are put in place in this country to protect the American public do not serve as a disincentive to doctors and nurses from this country volunteering to travel to West Africa to treat Ebola patients," Earnest said.
