I'm a Hazmat-Trained Hospital Worker: Here's What No One Is Telling You About Ebola
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-norman/im-a-hazmat-trained-hospi_b_5998486.htmlEbola is brilliant.
It is a superior virus that has evolved and fine-tuned its mechanism of transmission to be near-perfect. That's why we're all so terrified. We know we can't destroy it. All we can do is try to divert it, outrun it.
I've worked in health care for a few years now. One of the first things I took advantage of was training to become FEMA-certified for hazmat ops in a hospital setting. My rationale for this was that, in my home state of Maine, natural disasters are almost a given. We're also, though you may not know it, a state that has many major ports that receive hazardous liquids from ships and transport them inland. In the back of my mind, of course, I was aware that any hospital in the world could potentially find itself at the epicenter of a scene from The Hot Zone. That was several years ago. Today I'm thinking, by God, I might actually have to use this training. Mostly, though, I'm aware of just that -- that I did receive training. Lots of it. Because you can't just expect any nurse or any doctor or any health care worker or layperson to understand the deconning procedures by way of some kind of pamphlet or 10-minute training video. Not only is it mentally rigorous, but it's physically exhausting.
PPE, or, personal protective equipment, is sort of a catch-all phrase for the suits, booties, gloves, hoods and in many cases respirators worn by individuals who are entering a hot zone. These suits are incredibly difficult to move in. You are wearing several layers of gloves, which limits your dexterity to basically nil, the hoods limit the scope of your vision -- especially your peripheral vision, which all but disappears. The suits are hot -- almost unbearably so. The respirator gives you clean air, but not cool air. These suits are for protection, not comfort. Before you even suit up, your vitals need to be taken. You can't perform in the suit for more than about a half hour at a time -- if you make it that long. Heat stroke is almost a given at that point. You have to be fully hydrated and calm before you even step into the suit. By the time you come out of it, and your vitals are taken again, you're likely to be feeling the impact -- you may not have taken more than a few steps in the suit, but you'll feel like you've run a marathon on a 90-degree day.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-norman/im-a-hazmat-trained-hospi_b_5998486.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
And have been kind of gassy.
I remember USAF firefighters as major party animals
oops, sorry, went off topic 
HAZMAT training with a hangover is a very bad experience. (true story)
Yes, we got carried away quite often. 
I worked in the CBPO.......I remember dealing with hungover fire guys
"She's right that health care workers should always bear in mind the seriousness of the work they do and the great importance of using all necessary precautions."
And they need to be provided the necessary PPEs, trained in dressing and removing them, and sufficiently staffed to support the "buddy system" where somebody person helps you dress and undress to ensure no accidental exposure.
"If by "destroy" we mean "eradicate from the earth" then that is unlikely. But we can destroy it locally with bleach and other disinfectants."
I read that as destroy once it's in your body. Right now, all we can do is provide supportive care to keep you alive and minimize organ damage as long as possible until your body is hopefully able to develop enough antibodies to stop it before the kill you.
There is some exaggeration in her article, however. She may at one time have been a hazmat trained hospital worker, but unless there are 2 people in healthcare with her name in Maine (which is always a possibility here due to the insularity) her linked in profile shows her as a marketing/science writer working at a healthcare consultant focussed on increasing profits at hospitals. Just google healthcare, her name and Maine.
So the company that she works at may well be the one that slashed and burned staffing where I work, and now is crying tears over the results of their type of work. 
