Before entering the U.S. Embassy in Monrovia to brief soldiers and reporters on the U.S. military response to the Ebola epidemic, Army Maj. Gen. Daryl Williams washed his hands in chlorine bleach and had his temperature taken.

In addition to these basic precautions, he adheres to the "ABCs" of medical care — but instead of following the typical combat care fundamentals of "Airway check, Breathing and Check for wounds," he uses the ABCs for West Africa: "Avoid Body Contact."

"We are monitoring ourselves every single day ... and we keep our distance [from others]. Transmission of this disease is about coming into contact with other people's bodily fluids. I don't expect to be doing that, I don't expect any soldiers will be doing that," Williams said.

In a Skype interview with attendees at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Williams said U.S. troops — some of whom have been in West Africa now a month — have finished building a hospital for infected health workers in Monrovia, are nearing completion of the first couple of 17 area Ebola treatment centers and are manning at least five mobile laboratories for testing specimens.

Williams said the "lion's share" of the work on the 17 treatment centers will be completed by late November or early December, providing 1,700 beds throughout the region for Ebola patients.

According to Williams, roughly 540 troops and Pentagon civilians of a planned 3,200 have arrived in the region, including Navy Seabees, a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response team with four MV-22 Osprey aircraft, airmen with the 62nd Airlift Wing, soldiers and Coast Guardsmen.

Troops from the 101st Airborne Division and Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, who is slated to assume command of the operation, are expected to arrive in the coming days.

The service members will provide command and control, logistics and engineering support to the local governments, nongovernmental organizations and health workers battling the Ebola epidemic.

According to Williams, the main priorities are constructing the Ebola treatment centers and establishing an intermediate staging base in Senegal to move equipment and supplies.

"The [Ebola treatment centers are] critical to breaking the chain of transmission — getting people out of their homes and into care," Williams said.

As of Oct. 10, more than 8,400 cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in West Africa and across the globe and 4,033 have died.

In the United States, two health care workers have tested positive for Ebola after treating a man who traveled from Liberia to Dallas in September. That man, Thomas Duncan — the first human ever to have been diagnosed with the deadly hemorrhagic disease in the United States — died Oct. 8.

Williams reiterated that troops deploying to West Africa will not be caring for Ebola patients and will be at low risk for contracting the disease, which has a mortality rate of between 50 and 70 percent.

Personnel deploying to the region are being trained in taking precautionary measures, practicing good hygiene and wearing personal protection equipment and will be closely monitored once they have arrived in the region.

According to Williams, commanders will have the authority to decide whether any of their troops will need to be quarantined for up to 21 days if they are suspected of having been exposed.

Gen. David Rodriguez, the U.S. Africa commander, said last week any personnel who test positive for Ebola will be flown back to the U.S. for treatment in an aircraft specially equipped to handle highly infectious patients.

On Wednesday, President Obama canceled a campaign trip to Connecticut and New Jersey to meet with his Cabinet members on Ebola.

He said Tuesday that the "world as a whole is not doing enough" to halt the epidemic.

Without naming names, the president said there are "a number of countries that have capacity that have not yet stepped up."

"Those that have stepped up, all of us are going to have to do more — because unless we contain this at the source, this is going to continue to pose a threat to individual countries at a time when there's no place that's more than a couple of air flights away," Obama said.

Jason Cone, communications director for Médecins Sans Frontières in the U.S., couldn't agree more. Speaking on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR on Wednesday, Cone blasted the White House and other governments for failing to do more.

"Many of the issues we were discussing in early August remain present. ... The U.S. government response has been a significant mobilization in terms of military personnel ... [but] many governments are going in, setting up centers and delegating the responsibility to manage the centers to the private sector. ... The U.S. government hasn't deployed any of the medical personnel we know are attached to their military branches. That raises a lot of questions for us as to this delegation of responsibility to volunteers."

But U.S. troops — including the medical personnel traveling with them — will remain focused on their mission, which does not include contact with sick patients, Williams said.

He sought to quell any fears among service members and their families regarding their risk of contracting the deadly virus.

"This is about discipline and chain of command. This is what soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coasties do. As long as the protocols are in place, we feel very comfortable operating in these environments. We are proud of our mission here and we feel like we're making the difference," Williams said.

Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.

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