U.S. Troops Battling Ebola Get Off to Slow Start in Africa
Rare Military Effort Comes as Concerns Mount Over Epidemic’s Expansion
By Drew Hinshaw
WSJ.com
Sept. 28, 2014
The American military effort against history’s deadliest Ebola outbreak is taking shape in West Africa, but concerns are mounting that the pace isn’t fast enough to check a virus that is spreading at a terrifying clip.
On Saturday, a handful of troops from the Navy’s 133rd Mobile Construction Battalion led a bulldozer through thigh-high grass outside Liberia’s main airport, bottles of hand sanitizer dangling from their belt loops.
They had been digging a parking lot in the East African nation of Djibouti this month when they received a call to build the first of a dozen or more tent hospitals the U.S intends to construct in this region. The soldiers started by giving the land a downward slope for water runoff—”to keep out any unwanted reptiles,” said Petty Officer Second Class Justin Holsinger.
While this team levels the earth, superiors hash out the still-uncertain details of the American intervention here.
The epidemic is showing signs of gaining speed—6,574 cases had been reported officially as of Sept. 23, with 3,091 deaths. Those fatalities are more than double the number of both a month ago. The actual number of cases is believed to be three or four times as high. Had no international aid come, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, the number of cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone might have soared to 1.4 million by mid-January.
The Rest…HERE
