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Nonwovens/​Converting

Arco and Microgard ship thousands of disposable suits to protect UK troops from Ebola

The UK Government had initially ordered 50,000 suits a month but stepped up the scale of production as the size of the crisis became clear.

14th October 2014

Innovation in Textiles
 |  Hull

Medical/Hygiene, Protective, Clothing/​Footwear

Two Hull companies, Arco and Microgard, have teamed up to supply the British Government with safety equipment as aid workers fight the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone.

Arco, a Hull-headquartered workplace safety specialist, is shipping 100,000 suits, made from nonwoven fabrics, a month to the disease-hit country from its National Distribution Centre in west Hull, to be used by 750 British troops and other workers on the ground to protect them from infection.

 

The gear, which has been requested by the Department for International Development in a seven-figure contract, has been designed by fellow Hull firm Microgard, a leading manufacturer of chemical protective clothing.

Risk of infection

Ebola is a virus that can be spread when people come into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. It has already claimed the lives of thousands of people across western Africa this year.

Once the virus enters the body it can replicate very quickly, causing a range of increasingly harmful symptoms, including internal bleeding. Left untreated it can have a mortality rate as high as 90%.

Anyone who has close contact with an infected person or handles samples from patients is at risk of becoming infected. Hospital workers, laboratory workers and family members are at greatest risk.

Shipment plans

The Government had initially ordered 50,000 suits a month but stepped up the scale of production as the size of the crisis became clear.

The equipment, which includes a disposable sealed suit, gloves, a hood, visor and respirator, will be driven down to RAF Kemble in Gloucestershire and flown to Sierra Leone in cargo planes.

Initial shipments are coming from a stock pile in Hull, but after those have been exhausted, they will be shipped directly by Arco from a manufacturing site in China.

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