The first group of Canadian Forces heading to Sierra Leone to help combat Ebola is first training at a custom-designed clinic in northern England.
Military personnel are taking part in daily exercises at the Army Medical Services Training Centre near York, where they're rehearsing the medical procedures they'll be required to perform once in West Africa.
Lt.-Cmdr. Melanie Espina told CTV News that while the whole team is a little bit nervous, the anxiety might encourage personnel to be extra careful.
"I think caution and maybe a bit of nervousness is what's going to keep us safe," Espina said, explaining that an overly confident person might get complacent and make mistakes.
"Since I've been here and I've been able to focus on the training...it's becoming more real. It's sinking in what I'm actually going to do."
A few months ago the centre in York was designed to resemble a hospital in Afghanistan. Now it's been modelled to resemble the same type of clinic the medical team will be working in once they're in Sierra Leone, where they're expected to remain for six months.
If anything changes at the clinic in Sierra Leone, it has to be reflected in the clinic in Britain. This means all the technology and conditions have to match, including the types of procedures performed, the position of the security cameras and the temperature.
Michael Monardo, a medical technician with the Canadian Forces, was surprised at how much safety and protective gear he will be required to wear.
"It's definitely more than I thought originally, but it's going to be worse in Sierra Leone with the temperature rising," he said from beneath his face mask.
The donning and removing of the necessary gear is a critically important process, as the Ebola virus is transmitted through the bodily fluids of an infected individual.
Putting on all of the items correctly takes a total of 10 minutes. But that pales in comparison to the painstaking process of carefully removing all of the items, which takes about 30 minutes.
Yet despite all the rehearsals, the team is looking forward to hitting the ground.
"I've done a number of interviews with my guys… and they want to go down there and do a humanitarian mission," Lt.-Col. Gary O'Neil said.
Sierra Leone is now the country with the most Ebola cases, with the WHO estimating about 8,000 confirmed cases as of Dec. 10.
With a report from CTV's Daniele Hamamdjian
