Ebola virus killed more than 3,400 people in West Africa since the start of the outbreak at the end of 2013. The United States saw its first patient come down with an Ebola infection in Texas on Sept. 28, exposing up to 100 other people as of Oct. 3.
[caption id="attachment_100842" align="alignright" width="350"] Sangil Kim (right) holds a piece of the nanotube fabric that repels chemical and biological agents. Watching are Kuang Jen Wu and Francesco Fornasiero. (credit: Jacqueline McBride, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)[/caption]
Nearly a 10th of the victims in Africa are health care workers in the hot zone, including some of the region’s top doctors. Trouble is, their protective suits don’t breathe; they become intolerably hot, especially in warm climates. Inevitably, heat-stressed and dehydrated workers rip off their gear and expose themselves to Ebola.
Hot-zone protocol requires fastidious suiting up with rubber boots, impermeable hazardous-material suits, double latex gloves, breathing masks and a hood, with multiple chlorine washes of boots and hands upon exit. If diligently executed, the protocol works. But no one can stand to stay inside the suits for long.
New nanotechnology-based protective suits under development for military use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory promise a giant leap forward in medical worker comfort while working in Ebola hot zones, and areas poisoned by biological and chemical weapons. To consider early versions of the suits for medical use, a request would need to come from an organization such as the Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization, according to Anne Stark, who handles public relations for the research team developing the suits at Lawrence Livermore lab.
A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. Bacteria and viruses are 10 nanometers in diameter or bigger. Ebola is more like 80 nanometers wide and up to 1,000 nanometers in length.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore are developing smart military uniform material based on minuscule carbon nano-pores that can shift from opening only a few nanometers to much larger openings based on the degree of outside threat. No matter whether a medical worker is inside or outside a biological hot zone, the protective suit breathes to allow air transfer and comfort.
"The uniform will be like a smart second skin that responds to the environment," said Francesco Fornasiero, LLNL's principal investigator for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-funded project, which started about two years ago and was funded with $13 million. "The fabric will be able to switch reversibly from a highly breathable state to a protective one in response to the presence of the environmental threat."
The suits, designed for military use, could help medical workers. Biological threats such as Ebola are relatively large and can be readily excluded from such suits. When soldiers face other threats in the field, the nano-tubes can close down entirely to block chemical agents such as sulfur mustard (blister agent), GD and VX nerve agents, toxins such as staphylococcal enterotoxin and biological spores such as anthrax. The suit surface will be able to detect and identify the threat, then instantly respond with the appropriate pore size to protect the wearer.
Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 in Zaire.
One of Lawrence Livermore’s jobs is to detect and respond to new, unknown biological threats, including viruses and bacteria deployed as weapons, not just man-made threats, but threats made by nature, such as Ebola, bird flu, swine flu (H1N1). Africa and Asia are the two hotbeds for new pathogens.
Though it's challenging to detect something scientists don’t know exists, that is part of our national security mission, biosecurity, to keep the U.S. and world safe from these emerging pathogens.
When an outbreak happens, the Centers for Disease Control usually takes charge, goes to patient zero or the first few patients, takes samples and does triage. If it’s a new virus or bacteria, what its properties are, and usually contain it. That’s our best, effective method right now is containment.
With all the high-tech international business travel, especially in Asia, chances for moving Ebola or other threats increase. When people in developing countries get sick with flu-like symptoms such as Ebola, they often don’t initially go to doctors. They try to ride it out. It’s not until awhole village gets sick that people start to worry that maybe there’s something wrong.
If infections move into densely populated but impoverished regions such as parts of India, a new virus could spread rapidly.
Ebola poses similar risks if travelers carry the virus to densely populated areas that don't have the ability to quickly isolate sick patients.Emergency responders prepared for Ebola, other infections
SANTA ROSA - If Ebola virus cases show up in Sonoma County, Emergency Manager Christopher Helgren and his team will spring into action with a well-planned response. [read more]
