Protective suit against Ebola and future epidemics

19. Following the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, EPFL is joining forces with Geneva University Hospitals and the University of Geneva to develop a new protective suit. The initiative is driven and supported by doctors working on the front lines. Health workers from around the world battled the Ebola epidemic in West Africa for over three years. Yet the hermetically sealed suits they wore to protect themselves from the deadliest epidemic on record were stifling and ill-adapted for tropical countries. New safety gear that is more comfortable, reusable and possibly even less expensive - while offering the protection needed by health workers tending to people afflicted with Ebola - is now being developed by EPFL and Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), Doctors Without Borders and the University of Geneva. The prototype will be on display for three days at the Geneva Health Forum .