With the spread of Ebola throughout Europe now said to be unavoidable, Western militaries are finally taking action. But unfortunately, the ADF can't be among those sending troops, writes Adam Kamradt-Scott.

A terrible humanitarian crisis is unfolding before us. With literally over 3,500 people already dead and many more thousands infected, the current outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa shows no sign of ending anytime soon. Yesterday's announcement of a Spanish nurse (living in Madrid) having contracted the virus also confirms the oft repeated refrain that infectious diseases do not respect borders.

Earlier today, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the spread of the virus throughout Europe is now "unavoidable", even as European health authorities scramble to investigate how the nurse contracted the disease.

The prospect of Ebola spreading throughout Europe will likely generate tremendous anxiety, like it has already done in the United States. Fear can serve a positive purpose though if it prompts the international community to allocate more resources to fighting the disease in West Africa.

So far it has taken more than six months of people dying by the hundreds, now thousands, but finally a number of Western governments have stepped forward to try and help contain the outbreak.

Military Forces of the world unite to fight Ebola

Leading the charge is the United States, with president Barack Obama recently announcing a commitment to send between 3,000-4,000 military personnel to the region to assist train health workers and build at least 17 healthcare centres.

The United Kingdom meanwhile has deployed its military forces to Sierra Leone to help build a healthcare facility and assist the national health authorities care for the sick and dying. Even France and Germany have recently announced a commitment to deploy military assets and send more than 2,000 military personnel to the region to help.

Here in Australia, a former aid worker has called on the Government to deploy our troops to assist the international response effort by launching an online petition. While this may seem to be a reasonable suggestion in light of what other countries are doing, unfortunately in this case it would be an extremely bad decision to deploy the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to fight Ebola.

This is not because the ADF is incapable of doing a professional job. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the commitment, dedication and flexibility of our military in responding to humanitarian disasters is internationally recognised and cannot be faulted.

Why can't we send our troops?

So why shouldn't we send our troops now? For the simple fact that they have not been trained to deal with infectious diseases. Nor, significantly, does the ADF have sufficient military assets to respond to a crisis like this.

It will perhaps come as a surprise to many, but Australia does in fact have a Surgeon-General (currently Rear Admiral Robyn Walker) who is responsible for running the Australian Defence Force Joint Health Command. Yet aside from operating the Australian Army Malaria Institute that is based in Enoggera, Brisbane, the ADF has very little capability to respond to disasters of this type for two key reasons.

The first reason is that we simply do not have enough military medical doctors and nurses to send overseas. National statistics on the numbers of military health professionals employed prior to 2010 is difficult to obtain due to the fact that credentialing and registration was managed by each state and territory. But even over the past few years though there has been a notable fluctuation in the number of ADF medical and nursing staff.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, for example, in 2013 there were 256 doctors (out of 78,514 nationally) and 694 nursing staff (out of 266,509 nationally) employed in the Defence Forces in clinical positions. This compares to 318 doctors and 453 nurses in 2011. Some of this fluctuation can be attributed to previous government "efficiency savings" in military spending, but equally the ADF has found it difficult to retain trained healthcare professionals due to the amount of administration often associated with defence-related medical roles.

The second key problem is the lack of dedicated military assets. While the ADF retains the use of four C-17 Globemaster aircraft that have been used to recover injured Australian personnel from conflict zones, these planes do not have the capacity to transport people infected with a highly contagious disease.

Similarly, whereas the United States can deploy the hospital ships USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort (each with approximately 1,000 hospital beds per vessel), the Australian Navy is in the process of replacing two vessels that would increase the total number of hospital beds from 88 to 112.

The ADF relies heavily on Australian civilian arrangements to meet their healthcare needs. This is because as a nation we have systematically failed to invest in military healthcare, and it would be dangerous - not to mention grossly unfair - to now deploy our military forces and expect them to deal with this outbreak.

What can we do then?

Having said this, Australia can and must do more. While we cannot send our military, a raft of civilian Australian health professionals are ready and willing to lend their expertise to this humanitarian disaster.

The position of the Australian Government so far though has been to actively discourage people from going, and has offered $7 million to other agencies and governments as the sum total of our commitment.

We have a moral responsibility to act. Our health professionals are some of the best trained in the world, and a number of them are willing to put their own lives on the line to help save others.

The challenge is getting them over there and back again safely. For the Australian Government, there is also a vested self-interest for fighting Ebola in West Africa. For only by doing so can we hope to avoid it spreading to our shores.

Dr Adam Kamradt-Scott is a senior lecturer at the Centre for International Security Studies, University of Sydney. View his full profile here.