The Chinese government built the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital in Tappita, Liberia, which opened in February 2011. The US Army now uses three rooms in the large hospital for its mobile blood lab for processing blood samples for the Ebola virus. Photo: Cheryl Hatch
The Tappita blood testing lab consists of three small rooms in an enormous hospital that dwarfs every other structure in the village. According to the tablet plaque on a monument at the entrance, the Chinese government built the hospital less than four years ago, a gift to Liberian people. Next door to the palatial hospital is Tappita's Ebola Treatment Unit; it is operated by the American non-profit Heart to Heart International, and constructed out of white tarp, plywood, and gravel."When we got here, we brought enough stuff to run hundreds of blood samples," Brammer told me, "but it turns out location is more important than volume."We didn't see any patients, in the hospital or at the ETU. We weren't even allowed inside the ETU. We saw workers, but no patients. If a blood sample were to come in while we were there, Brammer said the first thing he'd do is kick us out.The protocols and processes inside of the testing area are even more stringent than in the ETU itself. Originally, Army labs like this one were kitted out so they could confirm whether a soldier had been exposed to a chemical agent, or to test for the presence of Soviet weaponized biological agents, such an anthrax, small pox, and botulinum toxin. Here in Liberia, though, the goal is to get a confirmation that a patient has Ebola in two hours, rather than two days. The longer a person without Ebola waits in an ETU, the better chance they will actually catch it while there.We brought enough stuff to run hundreds of blood samples, but it turns out location is more important than volume.
Spc. Kayode Ilesanmi, 28, from Lagos, Nigeria, dons his Tyvek personal protective equipment suit during a demonstration at the 1st Area Medical Lab at the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital in Tappita, Liberia. Ilesanmi is one of the Army's medical laboratory technicians that process blood samples for presence of the Ebola virus. Photo: Cheryl Hatch
Spc. Kayode Ilesanmi, 28, from Lagos, Nigeria, from left, Staff Sgt. Joshua Boggess, 30, from Hometown, West Virginia, and Capt. Jerod Brammer, man the 1st Area Medical Lab at the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Regional Referral Hospital in Tappita, Liberia. As Army medical laboratory technicians, the soldiers operate the lab that processes blood samples for presence of the Ebola virus. Photo: Cheryl Hatch
"That's when you know you've really got Ebola," said Brammer. He said this with professional distance and a scientist's satisfaction, no tummy rumble to be working so intimately with a virus that has caused so much fear.In some ways, Ebola acts more like a chemical weapon than a disease. Consider the similarities to the nerve agent VX: incredibly deadly, dangerous as a liquid, very little hazard through the air, killed by chlorine and sunlight and only a little bit of weather and time. "People wondered if we were trained enough to do this job," Boggess said. "We've been training to do this job our whole career in the Army."Travel support for this story was provided by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.That's when you know you've really got Ebola