The Department of Defense issued a statement on Oct. 30 declaring it would be training more medical workers to handle domestic Ebola cases.
Currently, there is one 30-person team comprised of Army, Air Force and Navy public health specialists. The group, which was hand-picked for related experience and skill level, recently received infectious disease training at the San Antonio Military Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, according to Military Times. Their role will be to arrive at medical centers treating Ebola patients no later than 72 hours after a confirmed diagnosis. They will help take care of the infected people while instructing the hospital's staff on proper protocol.
The training focused primarily on identifying and treating Ebola while containing the virus and stopping it from spreading. Since the only people to have caught the virus within the U.S. were medical workers treating an infected patient, training health professionals on the proper handling and disposal techniques is the military's top priority.
According to USA Today, the DoD is creating more Ebola-fighting teams in anticipation of requests from the Department of Health and Human Services, which wants to be prepared with plenty of qualified medical professionals in the event of increased U.S. diagnoses.