Inside an Ebola isolation unit: How doctors, nurses protect themselves

[tnbutterfly - Mary, BSN]

Caring for patients with Ebola comes with very strict guidelines for hospital workers. TODAY's Matt Lauer observed the procedures firsthand during a visit last month to Emory University Hospital's isolation unit, where health care officials successfully treated Ebola patients Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol.

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With questions now being raised about a possible protocol breach that led to a Dallas nurse contracting the virus from Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian victim who carried the disease to Texas, here's a look at the meticulous precautions in place at Emory to treat someone infected with Ebola, or any other highly infectious disease.

• Putting on the protective gear is always done in pairs. This can take up to 20 minutes.
  
• Two sets of gloves and boots, with first pair of gloves taped on.
  
• The suit also includes a helmet with a built-in fan that pulls outside air through a filter so the nurse is never breathing any air from the outside room.
  
• A second suited-up person always observes from outside, both as a backup and to watch for any mistakes or signs of contamination.
  
• The risk for self-contamination is highest when health care workers leave the isolation room and take off their suit. A three- to five-minute shower body scrub always follows.
  

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I guarantee you the nurses in Dallas were NOT given this equipment.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I guarantee you the nurses in Dallas were NOT given this equipment.

And one further: I'll BET that the nurses were also told they'd be "just fine" and "just be careful". AND that they HAD to go in that room....