Odierno: Ebola Largest Medical Emergency Since Plague

U.S. ARMY

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 22, 2014) — The Ebola outbreak is the largest medical emergency since the plague, and the Army is assessing how to respond to this “dire situation,” said the Army’s top general.

“It is a very bad situation,” Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Ray Odierno said today, at Google’s office in Washington, D.C., during his first Google hangout, a virtual town hall that lasted more than an hour.

“We just got a team on the ground over there doing an assessment of what is needed,” he said. “It is a medical emergency of proportions we haven’t seen since the plague centuries ago.”

More than 2,800 people are known to have died since late March in the outbreak, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization. 

Odierno said the Army is looking at sending logistics personnel and hospitals, with perhaps hospital staff and aviation support later. 

“I think the majority, initially, of people going over will be logistics personnel that will be separated from where the disease is, in order to assist in providing support,” he said.

ARMY STRUCTURE

The world is an increasingly dangerous place and the Army will continue to respond to these threats, Odierno said in the virtual town hall, where he fielded questions from Soldiers in Afghanistan; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Fort Riley, Kansas. 

The Installation Management Command, the Surgeon General’s office, and the chief of staff’s wife Linda Odierno also participated in the event.

“I believe it’s time for us to have a security debate, because of what I call the increased velocity of instability around the world, and the fact that I believe that our requirements are going up, not down,” he said.

The current force strength is at 510,000, he said, although by the end of September 2015, that number will be at 490,000. 

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http://www.army.mil/article/134178/Odierno__Ebola_largest_medical_emergency_since_plague/