The U.S. military will train more medical personnel to respond to domestic cases of Ebola should they occur, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

Plans are underway to form more military Ebola medical response teams similar to the 30-member group that completed training this week at San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The official said the Pentagon is anticipating a request from the Health and Human Services Department for more medical personnel who would respond on short notice to civilian medical facilities should they need help treating Ebola patients.

The first team, made up of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, completed training on Tuesday and included 20 critical care and inpatient nurses, five physicians and five infection control specialists who would instruct civilian health care workers in infectious disease protocols.

At least one member, Navy Cmdr. James Lawler, chief of the clinical research department at the Naval Medical Research Center's Bio Defense Research Directorate at Fort Detrick, Maryland, has experience treating Ebola patients: Lawler worked in a treatment facility in Guinea earlier this year, according to an Air Force press release.

The team was trained to identify the signs and symptoms of Ebola, the virus' transmission and containment. They practiced donning protective equipment and learned to care properly for Ebola patients as well as teach others to provide treatment.

While recent reports have presented some good news on the Ebola front — that Liberia, the hardest-hit country, may be experiencing fewer cases — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in late September estimated that without global intervention in West Africa, the number of cases could increase to 1.4 million.

For countries outside the Ebola-affected region, the forecast is less dire but not negligible, since an increase in cases in Africa would boost the likelihood of the virus spreading through travel.

The DoD teams — the official did not say how many members eventually would be trained — are designed to respond within 72 hours to any outbreak on U.S. soil.

"This is a classic public health challenge and we have such resident public health expertise in the military health system. Ebola is a strategic threat and we've been asked to provide our expertise," the senior health official said.

More than 1,000 troops are in West Africa, with another 3,000 expected to deploy over the next several months.

According to Pentagon sources, any service member who develops Ebola symptoms would be stabilized in-country and evacuated by specially equipped ambulance to a top Ebola treatment facility in the U.S., either at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland; Emory University Hospital in Atlanta; or University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

Military patients who are considered high risk but are not symptomatic would return to the U.S. and be placed in isolation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland; Portsmouth Naval Hospital, Virginia; or William Beaumont Army Medical Center, Fort Bliss, Texas.

Service members deemed to be low risk will be quarantined by their services and monitored for symptoms for 21 days.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday the policy to sequester returning troops will be reviewed within 45 days to determine whether it should remain in place.

About Patricia Kime

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

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