Updated Oct. 27, 2014 6:36 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The first American soldiers to leave Liberia since the onset of the Ebola crisis, including the commanding general of the U.S. Army Africa, are in a controlled monitoring facility in Italy, and all Army soldiers who serve in West Africa will undergo similar monitoring, the Army said on Monday.
Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, the U.S. Army Africa commander who led the military’s Ebola response until this weekend, was among about a dozen Americans placed in a controlled area in Caserma Del Din, a military installation in Vicenza, Italy. They will remain there for 21 days.
Dozens of additional soldiers are returning to Italy through Friday, and will be placed in similar isolation, said Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, an Army spokeswoman. None of the soldiers have shown any symptoms of exposure, a defense official said.
Top Pentagon officials, meanwhile, will meet Wednesday to discuss whether to apply the Army’s controlled monitoring policy across all military services. Defense officials said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would have to make that decision.
The military moves come amid an emotional debate over the extent of isolation and monitoring that health-care workers, travelers and military personnel should face after returning from Ebola-stricken West Africa.
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers said it appeared the military’s decision had left the nation with two different policies for people returning from affected regions in West Africa: While military personnel, who are supposed to have no direct contact with Ebola patients, now are subject to 21 days of isolation, health-care workers, some of whom have been infected after treating patients in West Africa, aren’t, they said.
“The military has much stronger standards,” said Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.) in an interview, saying some of the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines were “still a puzzle to me.” He noted that one explanation for the Pentagon’s standards might be that soldiers work and live in close quarters for weeks on end, “so it would make sense” that the military would take every precaution.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest wouldn’t say whether the Obama administration agrees with the Army’s 21-day isolation policy.
Administration officials have pushed back against decisions in New York and New Jersey and other states to quarantine health-care workers returning from treating patients in West Africa. The state protocols are more stringent than those currently recommended by the federal government.
Mr. Earnest said U.S. troops, who are typically working on logistics in countries neighboring those with Ebola outbreaks, face less risk than doctors and nurses treating infected patients.
“I’m not going to get into what sort of advice is being shared between the White House and the secretary of defense,” Mr. Earnest said. “But again, we do want this process to be driven by science.”
As of Monday, the U.S. had nearly 900 service members deployed across West Africa, including 761 in Liberia and 121 in Senegal, where the Defense Department is establishing a staging base and transport hub to support Operation United Assistance. In the coming weeks, the troop presence could grow to more than 3,900 service members.
Army officials didn’t describe the monitoring measures in Italy as a “quarantine.” The soldiers will have access to dining facilities, recreational activities, television and Internet, said Col. Conway, the Army spokeswoman.
Soldiers will have no personal contact with family members or the general public, she said.
The soldiers at Caserma Del Din are based in Italy. Army soldiers from other installations will return to their own home bases for the monitoring, Col. Conway said.
The 21-day monitoring period will identify potential health risks among soldiers leaving West Africa and aims to reduce risk to soldiers’ families and communities, Col. Conway said.
If in preliminary medical screening a soldier displays symptoms of Ebola, he or she will be evacuated in protective equipment to an Army medical center for further testing. Discussions on which facilities will take soldiers displaying symptoms are continuing, Col. Conway said.
The soldiers who were part of Gen. Williams’s group underwent medical screening before leaving Liberia and again once they arrived in Italy. The isolation was undertaken out of “an abundance of caution,” the defense official said.
Gen. Williams was the first American commander in charge of Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military’s effort to provide hospital facilities, training and personnel to combat Ebola.
Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky of the 101st Airborne Division has assumed control of the operation.
U.S. troops have completed initial construction on a 25-bed hospital in Monrovia to treat health-care workers who become infected with the virus, which will become operational in early November and will be staffed by U.S. Department of Health and Human services personnel, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.
The military also is close to completing construction on its first Ebola treatment unit, with two more expected to be completed in November. The U.S. has committed to building 17 of these units.
—Julian E. Barnes, Siobhan Hughes and Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, the U.S. Army Africa commander who led the military’s Ebola response until this weekend, was among about a dozen Americans placed in a controlled area in Caserma Del Din, a military installation in Vicenza, Italy. An earlier version of this article misspelled the city as Vincenza.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com
WASHINGTON—The first American soldiers to leave Liberia since the onset of the Ebola crisis, including the commanding general of the U.S. Army Africa, are in a controlled monitoring facility in Italy, and all Army soldiers who serve in West Africa will undergo similar monitoring, the Army said on Monday.
Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, the U.S. Army Africa commander who led the military’s Ebola response until this weekend, was among about a dozen Americans placed in a controlled area in Caserma Del Din, a military installation in Vicenza, Italy. They will remain there for 21 days.
Dozens of additional soldiers are returning to Italy through Friday, and will be placed in similar isolation, said Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, an Army spokeswoman. None of the soldiers have shown any symptoms of exposure, a defense official said.
Top Pentagon officials, meanwhile, will meet Wednesday to discuss whether to apply the Army’s controlled monitoring policy across all military services. Defense officials said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would have to make that decision.
The military moves come amid an emotional debate over the extent of isolation and monitoring that health-care workers, travelers and military personnel should face after returning from Ebola-stricken West Africa.
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers said it appeared the military’s decision had left the nation with two different policies for people returning from affected regions in West Africa: While military personnel, who are supposed to have no direct contact with Ebola patients, now are subject to 21 days of isolation, health-care workers, some of whom have been infected after treating patients in West Africa, aren’t, they said.
“The military has much stronger standards,” said Rep. Tim Murphy (R., Pa.) in an interview, saying some of the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines were “still a puzzle to me.” He noted that one explanation for the Pentagon’s standards might be that soldiers work and live in close quarters for weeks on end, “so it would make sense” that the military would take every precaution.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest wouldn’t say whether the Obama administration agrees with the Army’s 21-day isolation policy.
Administration officials have pushed back against decisions in New York and New Jersey and other states to quarantine health-care workers returning from treating patients in West Africa. The state protocols are more stringent than those currently recommended by the federal government.
Mr. Earnest said U.S. troops, who are typically working on logistics in countries neighboring those with Ebola outbreaks, face less risk than doctors and nurses treating infected patients.
“I’m not going to get into what sort of advice is being shared between the White House and the secretary of defense,” Mr. Earnest said. “But again, we do want this process to be driven by science.”
As of Monday, the U.S. had nearly 900 service members deployed across West Africa, including 761 in Liberia and 121 in Senegal, where the Defense Department is establishing a staging base and transport hub to support Operation United Assistance. In the coming weeks, the troop presence could grow to more than 3,900 service members.
Army officials didn’t describe the monitoring measures in Italy as a “quarantine.” The soldiers will have access to dining facilities, recreational activities, television and Internet, said Col. Conway, the Army spokeswoman.
Soldiers will have no personal contact with family members or the general public, she said.
The soldiers at Caserma Del Din are based in Italy. Army soldiers from other installations will return to their own home bases for the monitoring, Col. Conway said.
The 21-day monitoring period will identify potential health risks among soldiers leaving West Africa and aims to reduce risk to soldiers’ families and communities, Col. Conway said.
If in preliminary medical screening a soldier displays symptoms of Ebola, he or she will be evacuated in protective equipment to an Army medical center for further testing. Discussions on which facilities will take soldiers displaying symptoms are continuing, Col. Conway said.
The soldiers who were part of Gen. Williams’s group underwent medical screening before leaving Liberia and again once they arrived in Italy. The isolation was undertaken out of “an abundance of caution,” the defense official said.
Gen. Williams was the first American commander in charge of Operation United Assistance, the U.S. military’s effort to provide hospital facilities, training and personnel to combat Ebola.
Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky of the 101st Airborne Division has assumed control of the operation.
U.S. troops have completed initial construction on a 25-bed hospital in Monrovia to treat health-care workers who become infected with the virus, which will become operational in early November and will be staffed by U.S. Department of Health and Human services personnel, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary.
The military also is close to completing construction on its first Ebola treatment unit, with two more expected to be completed in November. The U.S. has committed to building 17 of these units.
—Julian E. Barnes, Siobhan Hughes and Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this article.
Corrections & Amplifications
Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams, the U.S. Army Africa commander who led the military’s Ebola response until this weekend, was among about a dozen Americans placed in a controlled area in Caserma Del Din, a military installation in Vicenza, Italy. An earlier version of this article misspelled the city as Vincenza.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com
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