Pentagon responds to sick bus rider who said she’d been to West Africa

WASHINGTON – Pentagon police shut down a building entrance and a portion of the south parking lot Friday because a woman was sick and told emergency personnel she had recently been to West Africa, officials said.

Arlington County, Virginia, where the Pentagon is located, responded with a HazMat team and was treating the incident as a possible Ebola case.

A statement by Inova Fairfax Hospital said the woman was isolated and was being evaluated by hospital staff and the Fairfax County Health Department but it had not yet been decided whether to test her for the Ebola virus.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Tom Crosson said that “out of an abundance of caution,” all pedestrian and vehicle traffic was stopped across 17 lanes of the huge parking lot. A building entrance was temporarily closed, he said.

The Pentagon initiated infectious disease protocols.

A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the woman, who has not been publicly identified, works for Total Spectrum, whose website says it is a lobbying and public relations firm. Managing Director Steve Gordon told The Associated Press the Pentagon had contacted him, and he said the woman had not been out of the Washington area.

The military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment publicly by name, said the woman was on a shuttle bus taking guests to a ceremony for Gen. Joe Dunford, who is taking over as commandant of the Marine Corps. She got off the shuttle before it left the Pentagon lot and then vomited.

Officials notified the FBI and were checking the woman’s background and possible travel to West Africa.

According to defence officials, seven Pentagon officers who assisted the woman were being isolated and might be kept in a tent at the Pentagon overnight. Several people who were on the shuttle bus also have been isolated.

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Associated Press writer Matt Barakat contributed to this report.