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 "I just feel like it's wrong for me to sit at home while I hear the
news of people dying," said Lai, 63.
Dressed in a yellow full-body suit, Lai joined 35 other licensed
health workers this week for new, hands-on safety training.
Developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as
part of its escalated response to the worst Ebola outbreak on
record, the three-day program teaches how to safely treat patients
in West Africa with the virus, which causes fever and bleeding and
is often fatal.
There is an urgent need for doctors, nurses and health care workers
to volunteer in the hardest-hit countries, where public health
systems were weak even before the outbreak.
The course, held at an old Army base in Anniston, Alabama, about 90
miles (145 km) from Atlanta, will provide instruction for about 40
people a week through January.
"We think people need to be mentally prepared," said Dr. Michael
Jhung, a CDC medical officer who created the course. "Avoiding
errors is critical."
At least 3,400 people have died and the CDC has warned up to 1.4
million people could be infected with the virus by January.
In addition to the cases in West Africa, two patients, one in the
United States and one in Spain, have been diagnosed with the
hemorrhagic fever.
SPACESUITS AND HAND WASHING
Participants entered a simulated medical ward in pairs, each dressed
in the full-body protective garb that has become a familiar sight
since the first cases in the current outbreak were reported in
March.
CDC instructors led the students through the steps of drawing blood
from patients, including those who might be combative or dehydrated.
"The most important thing is...can you operate safely?" said CDC
medical officer Satish Pillai, who went to Liberia this summer. "If
it can't be done safely, you need to stop."
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Participants were told to avoid touching each other, to wash their
hands and keep them away from their faces. Students were instructed
how to wiggle out of masks, goggles, aprons, suits, gloves and boots
without letting any potentially contaminated surfaces touch their
skin.
Heather Bedlion, a 38-year-old nurse from Boston set to go to
Liberia on Oct. 12 through the group Partners in Health, said she
had worried she would feel claustrophobic in the protective suit but
was relieved to find it more awkward than stifling.
"It's a little spacesuit feeling," she said. "But this is what you
have to do to take good care of patients there."
Jhung, the course's leader, acknowledged that some people might
decide after the training that the difficulties that come with Ebola
treatment are too much for them.
"I think we want to freak them out a little bit," he said.
(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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