A Brisbane doctor bound for Sierra Leone to help victims of Ebola says she will be more protected than the international workers who contracted the deadly virus.
Clinical director of anaesthesia at Redlands Hospital Dr Jenny Stedmon leaves for West Africa on Saturday for a month to join an international team of physicians and nursing staff treating victims of Ebola.
Earlier this month, an American aid worker working with the deadly virus while in Liberia became infected.
Meanwhile, two men in Austria who had been hospitalised on the suspicious of carrying the virus were given the all clear.
“We will have the protective equipment that is required so we will be more protected than they were,” Dr Stedmon said.
“Of course nothing is without risk, but I think on balance, the good that can be done is more important and I think this is a preventable disease, it’s important to say that.
“With proper protective clothing it’s not that likely that I will be affected by the disease.”
Dr Stedmon said she would have full body suit, full facial mask and boots.
“So it will be obviously full body protective equipment,” she said.
“Our working conditions will be quite difficult and so really my biggest fear is that I don’t do my job as well as I might so that’s what I’m concerned with is making sure I get the job done.”
West Africa’s Ebola epidemic is by far the deadliest since the virus was discovered four decades ago in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the death toll had reached 1,229, with most of the victims in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with four cases in Nigeria.
Some 2,240 people are also confirmed or suspected to have the disease.
Dr Stedmon has worked with the Red Cross on numerous occasions in various war zones, but usually as part of a surgical team.
“I’m aware that the WHO said that the situation is out of control in Africa and the Red Cross has a plan to help curb the spread of the disease and I would like to be part of that help,” she said.
“These patients will probably be dehydrated, the temperature and in addition to that the fact that they often get diahorrea and vomiting will mean that they’ll need fluid resuscitation and basic healthcare so I will be providing that.”
When she eventually returns home she will have to remain at home for 21 days for the isolation period.
Chances of Ebola spreading in Australia ‘reasonably small’
An expert in public health says there was a chance Ebola could be brought to Australia from people returning from those areas, but the chances of it spreading were much less than they would be in Africa.
Public Health Professor Gerry Fitzgerald from the Queensland University of Technology said the chances of the virus spreading from one person to another in Australia was “reasonably small”.
“If somebody did contract the disease here then our public health authorities would move very quickly to isolate that person and their contacts to monitor them very closely,” he said.
“The person being admitted to hospital would be admitted to a very sophisticated infectious disease ward where they would be treated with the very upmost of precautions.
“Obviously a person who is infected in Australia would have a much better chance than if they were infected in a country that didn’t have our healthcare standards.”
Professor Fitzgerald said Ebola was not as infectious as influenza, and could only be contracted if exposed to bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.