At the front line of battle against disease

SONG CAIPING

Title: Director of Nursing Department

Age: 40

Working at: Chongqing Xinqiao Hospital affiliated to Third PLA Military Medical University

Every day in Liberia, Song Caiping was busy solving seemingly trivial problems on the wards that would affect the safety of patients and medical workers, such as a door lock and an electric fan.

Because there was no password lock at the Ebola treatment unit, "it took me four days to find a way to lock a door between a ward and a non-polluted area without using a key," she said.

The biggest problem for the nurses was the disinfectant water containing chlorine, which they had to spray all over their bodies many times a day.

The exposure to such high concentrations of chlorine caused them chest pain, coughing, vomiting, eye irritation and runny noses.

"Many nurses could not bear the chlorine, and their movements on the wards became difficult and unsteady, which could be dangerous," Song said. "One nurse almost suffocated as her mask was full of her nose secretions."

Finally, several electric fans were found and installed to help blow off the greenish-yellow chlorine dioxide gas in the rooms.

Wearing layers of protective suiting made the nurses' every action on the wards clumsy. It usually takes five minutes to give a shot, but in the Ebola treatment unit, "it would be very lucky for us to finish the work in half an hour", the nurse said.

The Chinese nurses built a good relationship with their Liberian counterparts and patients at the unit. The medical team hired about 80 local staff members.

"At first, we could feel that the Liberian staff were a little suspicious about how we Chinese medical workers would treat their countrymen," Song said.

But their suspicions soon disappeared.

"Later, we saw more and more local patients coming to the Chinese ETU."