The Protective Suits Helping Doctors Treat Ebola Victims

There’s only one thing standing between caregivers and the Ebola virus in the patients they treat: suits. Or more formally, Personal Protection Equipment suits (PPEs). They resemble Hazmat suits, of the kind workers once used to clean up the Chernobyl chemical disaster area almost 30 years ago.

The suits cover every part of the body, but as Dr. William Fischer of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill explains, if doctors don’t follow all the steps in putting the equipment on and then taking them off, they could accidentally contract the virus.