Description
Laura Lampe is an MSF nurse. This is how she gets ready for her shift to help the Ugandan Ministry of Health prepare facilities and staff for any potential Ebola cases in Bwera, a border town and popular crossing from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). While the outbreak has since been officially declared over in Uganda, Ebola disease continues to spread across eastern DRC.
People working with any infectious diseases wear some form of personal protective equipment (PPE), but the virus that causes Ebola disease is particularly contagious, and frontline workers must be as protected as possible.
Wearing this kind of PPE can get hot, especially in warm climates like Uganda and DRC. This heat means that staff can only wear PPE for up to one hour at a time, during which they enter the Ebola treatment center and do everything they can to help their patients.