They dedicate their lives to saving others, but as Ebola spreads worldwide, health care workers must also focus on saving themselves.
An American doctor and a North Carolina missionary working with Ebola victims were the first to bring the deadly virus to the United States when they contracted the virus in Liberia and were flown home for treatment.
Now, a Dallas nurse has set a similar milestone, becoming the first person known to have contracted the disease inside the U.S. She was wearing the proscribed protective gear -- gloves, mask and shield -- while recently caring for Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan at a Dallas hospital. Duncan died last week.While the Texas nurse remains in isolation, a nurse in Spain who contracted the virus after treating a patient in that country is struggling for her life.
There are so many caregivers who've become patients. At least 416 health care workers have contracted Ebola, and at least 233 have died, the World Health Organization reports. In Liberia, the worst-affected country, the virus has killed more than 100 medical workers.
Since the Ebola outbreak began -- the worst the world has seen -- doctors and nurses have described working conditions no one should endure.
Every single move they make in treating a patient must be perfect. One slip-up -- a torn glove or the smallest splat of infected fluid that gets on them -- could cost them their lives.
One provider in West Africa spoke of waking up every morning with a sore throat from constantly breathing in the fumes from chlorine that must be constantly sprayed to kill the virus that is capable of thriving not just in living organisms but on surfaces for some time if conditions are right.
Health care workers battle not just a disease but rumors among patients in Africa that Ebola is a myth the government is perpetrating. In a profession that already demands much emotionally and physically, these caregivers are pushed to the edge in both respects. They have lost friends, colleagues and patients.
All this as they beat back their own understandable paranoia and fear. Have I done everything correctly? Could I be next?
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