Pentagon civilians leaving Ebola zones may choose monitoring regimen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Civilian U.S. defense employees returning from Ebola relief work in West Africa must undergo monitoring to ensure they are free of disease but can choose between following civil health guidelines or the stricter military regimen, the Pentagon said on Friday. The decision followed an impassioned political and scientific debate in the United States about the most appropriate and safe precautions for returning medical and other workers who have been helping to contain the Ebola outbreak at its source. The worst outbreak of the disease on record has killed nearly 5,000 people, all but a handful in the impoverished West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said the Defense Department could not legally force civilian employees to follow the monitoring program approved for uniformed personnel this week but said they could voluntarily choose that option if they wanted. That program required troops to be isolated for 21 days after returning to their home station, a tougher regimen than currently required by U.S. federal health authorities. Defense Department civilians who do not want to undergo the military's isolation program may instead comply with guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as state and local health authorities, Kirby said They would be able to return home and undertake normal work duties and activities while monitoring their temperature and health symptoms for 21 days, the maximum incubation period for the Ebola virus. They could not take leave or accept temporary duty outside their local community in that time. Fifty-five civilian Defense Department employees are participating in the fight against Ebola in Liberia, Kirby said. The Pentagon has 1,193 personnel in West Africa on the Ebola mission, many of them engineers and workers building treatment centers. Of that number, 1,073 are in Liberia and the rest in Senegal providing logistics support. The Pentagon said military personnel only briefly in Ebola-affected countries, such as air crews taking supplies to the airport, would not have to undergo the 21-day isolation regimen but would have to self-monitor for 21 days. Medical professionals say Ebola is difficult to catch and is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person and is not transmitted by asymptomatic people. Ebola is not airborne. (Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by David Storey and Jonathan Oatis)