Ebola suit designed for patient rather than healthcare worker

The suit is a sealed environment – designed to be worn by an infectious person – which contains microbiological materials such as pathogens, spores and viruses.

The main purpose of the suit is to protect health workers from contamination through direct contact.

Health workers are currently required to wear protective suits when transporting or caring for patients with an infectious disease. Those patients are nursed in isolation rooms or enclosures, some with air filtration under negative pressure and nursing staff are given strictly controlled routines.

Design director Bruce Renfrew said the danger in health worker’s protective suits is when they disrobe.

He added: “Our design turns the problem of contamination on its head and puts the patient in the protective suit rather than everyone else having to be so protected.”

The impervious suit – which is hermetically sealed with seams and closures – keeps any microbiological organisms within it and can be used in hospitals or in the field.