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U.S. Airmen Deliver Ebola Treatment Facility in West Africa
by Joseph Earnest September 29, 2014
Newscast Media LANGLEY AFB, Virginia—Airmen from the U.S. Air Force's 633rd Medical Group partnered with representatives from the U.S. Public Health Service on September 26 to deliver a modular medical treatment center to Ebola-stricken West Africa.
Airmen accompanied the Expeditionary Medical Support System, or EMEDS, to Africa. While they will not be involved in treatment of patients exposed to the virus, they will set up the facility and train international health care workers, officials said.
In early September, Defense Department officials approved the State Department’s request for a 25-bed deployable hospital facility and the equipment and personnel required to set it up. The facility can treat a population at risk of up to 6,500.
"Experts from across the country are working together to bring meaningful relief to those stricken by this terrible disease," said Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Dun, chief of the expeditionary medical operations division in the office of the Air Combat Command surgeon.
As part of the joint effort from multiple U.S. government agencies, airmen will set up the EMEDS and train public health professionals on the proper use of the extensive tools available to them, officials said.
"We are potentially setting a precedent, because the EMEDS unit is typically set up for things like trauma care," said Public Health Service Rear Admiral Scott Giberson, acting deputy surgeon general. "[Instead] we will be using it for an infectious pathogen and treatment of international health care workers." Add Comments>>
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