BALTIMORE (AP) — A U.S. military mobile laboratory designed to assess and combat biological and chemical threats is preparing for its first deployment to Liberia, where a team of soldiers and scientists will test for Ebola.
The 1st Area Medical Laboratory based in Aberdeen will deploy to Liberia next week. Twenty-two soldiers, some of whom are biochemists, microbiologists and laboratory technicians, will be deployed on the mission.
The laboratory’s commander, Col. Patrick Garman, says the soldiers have undergone extensive training to prepare for the mission. Garman says the laboratory will be headquartered in Monrovia, the capital, and that four groups of three will be dispatched across Liberia to test human samples for the deadly virus.
Previously the laboratory has deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
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