100-strong army of British military medics will set up Ebola hospital in Sierra Leone to treat doctors and health workers struck by the deadly virus
- Personnel from 22 Field Hospital in York in training for humanitarian mission
- Wearing protective suits they have been treating simulated casualties
- Medics will staff a field hospital set up to treat other doctors, nurses and health workers who have caught the disease while treating the public
- They are expected to be deployed within the coming weeks
More than 100 British Army medics will be sent fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, it has been announced.
Personnel from the 22 Field Hospital have been undergoing an extensive training exercise in preparation for their deployment to West Africa.
As part of the training they have been wearing full protective suits, treating simulated casualties in make-up.
The medics will staff a field hospital established specifically to treat other doctors, nurses and health workers who have caught the disease.
More than 100 British Army medics will be sent to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone, it has been announced
Personnel from the 22 Field Hospital have been undergoing an extensive training exercise in preparation for their deployment to West Africa
Army Lieutenant Colonel Alison McCourt, right, briefs staff of 22 Field Hospital before the start of training for Operation Gritrock, the humanitarian mission to West Africa
British military doctors and nurses try on the protective equipment they will be wearing to treat Ebola patients at the new hospital
Conditions inside the hangar at Strensall in Yorkshire have been adapted to replicate the conditions medics will face. Army personnel are training in high temperatures wearing protective gear to acclimatise
Their role will not involve treating members of the general public.
It is expected they will be sent on their humanitarian operation within the coming weeks.
The exercise at Strensall Barracks, York, saw a hangar converted into a mock-up field hospital.
Staff from 22 Field Hospital, normally based in York, will operate a 12-bed facility to treat health care workers.
The exercise which is expected to last two weeks has been running for 13 hours every day.
Casualties with symptoms or suspicion of the Ebola virus, complete with realistic make-up and prosthetic veins, present themselves to the teams who are dressed in full protective plastic suits and face masks.
An Army spokeswoman said: 'They are going through all their procedures and getting atuned to wearing their personal protective equipment, working in quite hot temperatures.
'The training centre, which was geared up to be a replica of Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, can vary the temperature and it is warm in there today.
'The casualties come in and the medics test their procedures and working through using their protective equipment.'
As part of the training they have been wearing full protective suits, treating simulated casualties in make-up
The medics will staff a field hospital in Sierra Leone established specifically to treat other doctors, nurses and health workers who have caught the disease
A member of the team tests blood samples during training for Operation Gritrock
And medics donning protective equipment, label their disposable aprons, to aid identification of colleagues
International Development Secretary Justine Greening said the Government is continuing to keep the issue of tighter travel restrictions under review after a Spanish nurse tested positive for the Ebola virus in the first known transmission outside West Africa.
Ms Greening told BBC News: 'It doesn't change the assessment of the risk to the UK... but what it does show is why we're right to be working with governments as we are in Sierra Leone to help them combat this disease where... it's spreading so rapidly now.'
She added: 'Well, obviously the Spanish authorities are now looking at how this case happened.
'We certainly have incredibly stringent procedures here in the UK; obviously we had our own experience treating Will Pooley and the precautions that clinicians had to take in helping him get back to full health.'
British nurse Mr Pooley, who has been cured of Ebola, is back from a life-saving mission to the U.S. where he gave blood to try to help a victim of the virus.
The 29-year-old, from Suffolk, became the first Briton to contract the virus after working as a volunteer nurse in Sierra Leone, which is one of the worst-hit countries of the current outbreak.
He was flown back to Britain on August 24 and recovered after being treated at an isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital.
Ms Greening said it was key to expand the support being provided.
A Spanish nurse became the first person to contract the deadly virus outside of West Africa, after she was diagnosed last night. Her husband and three others have been quarantined as a result
She said: 'The UK is helping to build treatment beds, so that we can provide more treatment for more patients... working in communities so that we can catch patients and isolate them at an earlier stage helping the Sierra Leonean government and their ministry of health and their own health system to be able to cope with this disease.
'Then additionally we are working with the many NGOs who are on the ground, like Medecins Sans Frontieres to help them do the most that they can do to be part of tackling this disease.
'But, as we are seeing at this point, the disease is continuing to spread and what we need to do is get those transmission rates back under control, but until that happens we will continue to see more infections and a growing number of infections over the coming weeks.'
On the possible need for tighter travel restrictions, she said: 'Public Health England has issued Border Force's extremely clear cut guidance on the steps they need to take.
'The World Health Organisation has also issued very clear guidance on the screening that needs to happen for people exiting West Africa, so I think the authorities know what rules are in place, but we continue to keep all of those areas under review constantly.'
Leading charity Save the Children warned recently Ebola is spreading at a 'terrifying rate' with the number of recorded cases doubling every week.
Speaking at a conference in London co-hosted with Sierra Leone last week, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond called for more financial aid, doctors and nurses.
Scientists have warned that the deadly virus could spread across the world infecting people from the U.S. to China within three weeks.
There is a 50 per cent chance a traveller carrying the disease could touch down in the UK by October 24, a team of U.S. researchers have predicted.
A team of scientists at Northeastern University in Boston have used air travel information to predict where the deadly Ebola virus could reach in the next three weeks
Using Ebola spread patterns and airline traffic data they have calculated the odds of the virus spreading across the world.
They estimate there is a 75 per cent chance Ebola will reach French shores by October 24.
And Belgium has a 40 per cent chance of seeing the disease arrive on its territory, while Spain and Switzerland have lower risks of 14 per cent each.
Professor Alessandro Vespignani of Northeastern University in Boston, who led the research, said: 'This is not a deterministic list, it's about probabilities – but those probabilities are growing for everyone.
'It's just a matter of who gets lucky and who gets unlucky.
'Air traffic is the driver.
'But there are also differences in connections with the affected countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), as well as different numbers of cases in these three countries - so depending on that, the probability numbers change.'
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
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