More than 100 soldiers returning to the Philippines from a peacekeeping mission in Liberia, the country hardest hit by an Ebola epidemic in West Africa, will be quarantined on a secluded island, a military spokesman said Tuesday, according to dpa. The 112-member peacekeeping contingent is due to arrive in Manila on November 11. The military initially planned to quarantine them at a military facility in the northern province of Tarlac. "The chief of staff has decided to put [the peacekeeping forces] in a secluded place," said Lieutenant Colonel Harold Cabunoc. "That is an island paradise, but I could not disclose the exact location as of now." The soldiers will stay on the island for 21 days as required by the Department of Health, he added. The Philippines recalled the soldiers amid the outbreak of Ebola in Liberia, where 6,535 people have been infected by the virus, killing 2,413 of them, according to the most recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO). In all eight affected countries, 13,567 people have been infected since the start of the outbreak last year, with 4,951 deaths reported, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the WHO said.
