Operation United Assistance was a 2014 United States military mission to help combat the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, including the part of the epidemic occurring in Liberia. [1] The 101st Airborne Division headquarters was responsible for leading the mission. [2]
The United States Africa Command, working through United States Army Africa, has designated the Army's response to the Ebola epidemic as Operation United Assistance. [3] Up to 4,000 U.S. Army troops are planned as part of an aid mission there, starting September 2014. [1] Initially, the overall plan was to build 17 hospitals around the country of Liberia, each with 100-bed capacity. [4] However, in late November 2014 this was reduced to 10 treatment centers with 50 beds each. [5] By early January 2015, 8 out of 10 centers were completed. [6] This type of hospital is called an Ebola Treatment Unit or ETU for short. [7] The military is also working with USAID. [4]
A 25-bed hospital planned for health workers staffed by U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps officers was opened November 7, 2014, near Monrovia. [7]
By the end of September 2014 150 military personnel were helping USAID in the capital, Monrovia. [8] Special isolation units for the C-17 Globemaster aircraft are being worked on in late 2014 to support medical evacuation of personnel should they be infected. [9] The current evacuation aircraft can only carry one patient at time, while the isolation unit is being designed to support up to 15. [9]
By early October there about 400 troops were in Liberia. [10] This included soldiers from an Engineering Battalion, to help construct buildings for the operation. [11] Initial work included transporting supplies to Liberia, and scouting out sites to build the treatment centers. [12] By December 2014, there were three thousand servicemembers deployed for the operation; by February 2015, the number of servicemembers dropped to around thirteen hundred. [13] In early April 2015, 48th Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Brigade deployed to Liberia to oversee the draw down of the operation. [14]
The Monrovia Medical Unit is a 25-bed field hospital for local health care workers, that opened in November 2014 in Liberia in response to the Ebola epidemic there. [15] Hundreds of health workers from Liberia and West Africa have died from the disease, and it is hoped the hospital will be an encouragement to volunteers. [7] By October 2014 construction of the buildings for one 25-bed hospital was finished, called the Monrovia Medical Unit. [16] The plan was for US. Public Health Service officers to take care of Ebola-infected health care workers at the 25-bed facility. [17] The staff was to come from members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. [18] By October 19, it was reported that 223 health care workers had cases of Ebola in Liberia, and 103 of them had died. [19] [20]
On 7 November 2014, a new air-conditioned 25-bed hospital was opened for West African health care workers. [7]
Although U.S. troops will not be assigned to provide care for Ebola patients, rigorous precautions to protect them from the virus will be put in place. On 17 October 2014, Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James Lariviere told Congress that "We have a no-touch policy and a three-foot separation rule with local nationals"..."A typical soldier’s day will be to get up, have their temperature taken, go out and perform whatever task they are there to do. They will only eat approved food and drink bottled water and wash their hands in chlorine solution. When they get back to their compounds, they will have their temperature taken and do a chlorine wash again." [9]
The Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Raymond T. Odierno, ordered on October 27 a 21-day quarantine of all soldiers returning from Operation United Assistance. Up to 12 soldiers have been quarantined so far in a U.S. base in Italy. [21]
Tubmanburg, also known as Bomi and formerly known as Vaitown, is the capital of Bomi County in Liberia. It lies in the Bomi Hills northwest of Monrovia and was an iron ore and diamond mining centre until it was largely destroyed in the First Liberian Civil War. During the Second Liberian Civil War, it was the headquarters of the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy rebel group. Most residents are members of the Vai tribe.
Partners In Health (PIH) is an international nonprofit public health organization founded in 1987 by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim.
Liberia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Civil wars have killed around 250,000 people and displaced many more. The wars ended in 2003 but destroyed most of the country's healthcare facilities. Recovery precedes proceeds, but the majority of the population still lives below the international poverty line. Life expectancy in Liberia is much lower than the world average. Communicable diseases are widespread, including tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria, HIV, and Dengue. Female genital mutilation is widely practiced. Nearly a quarter of children under the age of five are malnourished and few people have access to adequate sanitation facilities. In 2009, government expenditure on health care per-capita was US$22, accounting for 10.6% of totaled GDP. In 2008, Liberia had only one doctor and 27 nurses per 100,000 people. It was ill-equipped to handle the outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and 2015.
The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in Western Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The first cases were recorded in Guinea in December 2013; later, the disease spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, with minor outbreaks occurring in Nigeria and Mali. Secondary infections of medical workers occurred in the United States and Spain. In addition, isolated cases were recorded in Senegal, the United Kingdom and Italy. The number of cases peaked in October 2014 and then began to decline gradually, following the commitment of substantial international resources.
An Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone occurred in 2014, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Liberia. At the time it was discovered, it was thought that Ebola virus was not endemic to Sierra Leone or to the West African region and that the epidemic represented the first time the virus was discovered there. However, US researchers pointed to lab samples used for Lassa fever testing to suggest that Ebola had been in Sierra Leone as early as 2006.
Patrick Oliver Sawyer was a Liberian-American lawyer who was notable for being the index case for the introduction of Ebola virus disease into Nigeria during the West African Ebola epidemic in 2014. Sawyer was a naturalized U.S. citizen who lived in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. He has been variously described as working for the Liberian Ministry of Finance and for the mining company ArcelorMittal as their national manager for public health. He was aged 40 at the time of his death.
An epidemic of Ebola virus disease occurred in Liberia from 2014 to 2015, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone. The first cases of virus were reported by late March 2014. The Ebola virus, a biosafety level four pathogen, is an RNA virus discovered in 1976.
Four laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease occurred in the United States in 2014. Eleven cases were reported, including these four cases and seven cases medically evacuated from other countries. The first was reported in September 2014. Nine of the people contracted the disease outside the US and traveled into the country, either as regular airline passengers or as medical evacuees; of those nine, two died. Two people contracted Ebola in the United States. Both were nurses who treated an Ebola patient; both recovered.
Thomas Eric Duncan was a Liberian citizen who became the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States on September 30, 2014.
Organizations from around the world responded to the West African Ebola virus epidemic. In July 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an emergency meeting with health ministers from eleven countries and announced collaboration on a strategy to co-ordinate technical support to combat the epidemic. In August, they declared the outbreak an international public health emergency and published a roadmap to guide and coordinate the international response to the outbreak, aiming to stop ongoing Ebola transmission worldwide within 6–9 months. In September, the United Nations Security Council declared the Ebola virus outbreak in the West Africa subregion a "threat to international peace and security" and unanimously adopted a resolution urging UN member states to provide more resources to fight the outbreak; the WHO stated that the cost for combating the epidemic will be a minimum of $1 billion.
This article covers the timeline of the 2014 Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa and its outbreaks elsewhere. Flag icons denote the first announcements of confirmed cases by the respective nation-states, their first deaths, and their first secondary transmissions, as well as relevant sessions and announcements of agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders; medical evacuations, visa restrictions, border closures, quarantines, court rulings, and possible cases of zoonosis are also included.
The Expeditionary Medical Support System (EMEDS) is a modular field hospital system developed by the U.S. military for mobile deployment of medical treatment facilities in any location.
The following lists events that happened during 2014 in Sierra Leone.
Liberia became militarily involved in World War II in January 1944, with the election of William Tubman, at which time it declared war on Germany and Japan. Before this, Liberia participated in the war for two years under the terms of a defense agreement with the United States. Apart from Ceylon and the Belgian Congo, Liberia possessed one of the few remaining sources of rubber for the Allies. To guarantee a steady supply of rubber from the world's largest rubber plantation, operated at Harbel by the Firestone Company since 1926, the US government built roads throughout the country, created an international airport, and transformed the capital, Monrovia, by building a deep water port.
In late October 2014, the United Kingdom sent a hospital ship, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's Argus, to help the aid effort against the Ebola virus disease epidemic in Sierra Leone. By late October Sierra Leone was experiencing more than twenty deaths a day from Ebola.
Cases of the Ebola virus disease in Nigeria were reported in 2014 as a small part of the epidemic of Ebola virus disease which originated in Guinea that represented the first outbreak of the disease in a West African country. Previous outbreaks had been confined to countries in Central Africa.
Deborah Ruth Malac is an American diplomat, who served as the United States Ambassador to Uganda. She was nominated by President Barack Obama and was confirmed by the Senate Nov. 19, 2015. She previously served as United States Ambassador to Liberia.
Raj Panjabi is an American physician, social entrepreneur, professor and former White House official.
Salomé Karwah was a Liberian nurse who was named co-Person of the Year by Time magazine in 2014 for her efforts to combat the West African Ebola virus epidemic. She appeared on the cover of Time in December 2014 with other health care workers and colleagues working to end the epidemic. Karwah survived ebola herself, before returning to work with Médecins Sans Frontières to help other patients afflicted with the disease. The actions of Karwah and other health care professionals are believed to have saved lives of thousands. However, two years later, Karwah died from complications of childbirth; her widower suggested that this might have been due to the widespread, mistaken belief that ebola survivors can still transmit the virus. Even before the ebola outbreak, Liberia had one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world.
Events in the year 2014 in Liberia.
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| Ebolavirus |
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| Marburgvirus |
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| Cuevavirus |
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| Dianlovirus |
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| Striavirus |
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| Thamnovirus |
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