The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ordered $2.7 million worth of protective equipment that will be configured into 50 kits for U.S. hospitals.
The Ebola protective gear kits include face shields and hoods, boot covers, gloves, impermeable gowns, coveralls and aprons, N95 respirators, purifying respirator systems and disinfecting wipes.
The sudden increase of demand forced the CDC to place the order ahead of time as more supplies are being requested to be flown to the West Africa. So before the supplies ran out, the United States has ensured that there are enough stocks for the U.S. hospitals, according to Reuters. Protective suit producer DuPont said that the demand rose to 300 percent since the outbreak began in March.
"We are making certain to not disrupt the orders submitted by states and hospitals, but we are building our stocks so that we can assist when needed," Greg Burel, director of CDC's Division of Strategic National Stockpile, said in the release.
Each kit will protect medical teams from being infected by an Ebola patient for five days. The CDC released new guidelines of handling Ebola patients including alternatives that can be used in case some of the items needed are not available, Healthday News reported.
Demand for protective equipment surged following the positive Ebola diagnosis of a Dallas patient. Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan tested positive of the virus and later died. He infected a nurse even if the said nurse was wearing a protective gear.
About 3 million protective gears will be needed to control the Ebola outbreak across the world. The disease has killed more than 4,400 people, mostly from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Health experts estimated that it can climb to 1.4 million cases by January 2015 if no intervention is made, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
