Ninety US service personnel returning from West Africa arrived at the Langley Transit Center at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., to begin a 21-day controlled monitoring period to make sure they don’t exhibit symptoms of having the Ebola virus before they return to home station and rejoin their families. They’ll get routine medical check-ups, including temperature checks twice a day, during this period following their Nov. 13 arrival, states a Langley release. “Yes, the personnel are here to be monitored, but we’re here to make sure they have what they need to live comfortably,” said Capt. Jasamine Pettie, who oversees the controlled monitoring area. The returning personnel—airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines, among them—were in West Africa as part of the US military’s mission to help the local governments thwart the spread of Ebola. The Defense Department instituted the controlled-monitoring period out of an abundance of caution even though defense officials have maintained that US military personnel in West Africa would not be placed in situations where they would come into contact with Ebola. (For more of our coverage, see Battling Ebola.)?
The U.K. and the U.S. will continue to enjoy access to the ports, airfield, and workshops at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean for at least another century, under a deal inked between the U.K. and Mauritius May 22.