They have a small team that has been studying ebola since it was discovered. They aren’t experts at providing treatment for it.
From my personal experience military doctors suck. They lack the training and experience necessary to provide this kind of care.
Needs to be managed by epidemiologists
The Army experience and involvement in disease and bio agents goes way deeper than that, it goes farther than just their research and testing for cures and vaccines.
“” More than half of the routine vaccines given to service members today were codeveloped by the US military. Beyond protection of its own forces, the military’s advances also created solutions to diseases of dire importance to national and international public health. Of 15 adult vaccines licensed in the United States since 1962, the DOD played a significant role in developing eight.””
“” The U.S. military has stationed uniformed scientists in the tropics for more than 100 years, and itsh active overseas laboratories have been in place for as long as 58 years. Military scientists live and work in the tropics to study the disease threats in naturally affected populations. Countermeasures and candidate solutions are studied through all phases of development including field testing. These military scientists serve as goodwill ambassadors, and contribute to developing health and science infrastructure in these tropical countries. Enduring relationships between tropical DoD facilities and ministries of health, international healthcare facilities, and local healthcare providers and researchers are of great value to the U.S. at a time when diseases such as SARS and avian influenza are potential global threats. The global MIDRP military presence provides a real-time early warning system in the identification and assessment of new and reemerging disease. Data from around the world is collected, analyzed, and immediately disseminated to military leadership and other agencies by the military’s DoD Global Emerging Infections Surveillance and Response System (DoD-GEIS) at the Armed Forces Health and Surveillance Center (AFHSC).
The MIDRP’s capabilities include basic science (discovery and the knowledge base to develop technological approaches) pre-clinical product optimization, and advanced animal model development. Clinical trials expertise for early FDA Phase 1 testing of drugs and vaccines through large (e.g. 42,000 volunteers for hepatitis A vaccine, and 62,000 volunteers for Japanese encephalitis vaccine) pivotal Phase 3 trials in developing nations is an especially valuable asset of the MIDRP. The DoD also has high containment laboratories, pilot Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) compliant bioproduction facilities, and FDA regulatory expertise in the U.S. and in many international settings.”
The United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID
1970s:
By the late 1970s, in addition to the work on Coxiella burnetii and other rickettsiae, research priorities had expanded to include the development of vaccines and therapeutics against Argentine, Korean and Bolivian hemorrhagic fevers, Lassa fever and other exotic diseases that could pose potential BW threats. In 1978, the Institute assisted with humanitarian efforts in Egypt when a severe outbreak of Rift Valley fever (RVF) occurred there for the first time. The epidemic caused thousands of human cases and the deaths of large numbers of livestock. Diagnostics, along with much of the Institute's stock of RVF vaccine, were sent to help control the outbreak. At this time the Institute acquired both fixed and transportable BSL-4 containment plastic human isolators for the hospital care and safe transport of patients suffering from highly contagious and potentially lethal exotic infections.
In 1978, it established an Aeromedical Isolation Team (AIT) — a military rapid response team of doctors, nurses and medics, with worldwide airlift capability, designed to safely evacuate and manage contagious patients under BSL-4 conditions. A formal agreement was signed with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) at this time stipulating that USAMRIID would house and treat highly contagious infections in laboratory personnel should any occur. (After deploying on only four "real world" missions in 32 years, the AIT was ultimately decommissioned in 2010.)
Infectious Diseases Fellowship Training Program
The National Capital Consortium offers subspecialty, fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The fellowship is a three-year program open to Army and Navy Medical Corps officers and designed to prepare internists for a successful career in both the clinical and research aspects of Infectious Diseases. The program is approved for five fellows each year.