Ebola Virus: For Want of Gloves, Doctors Die

By Drew Hinshaw - Aug. 16, 2014 2:43 a.m. ET

Health Workers Believe Ebola's Toll on Staff Could Be Mitigated With More Basic Hospital Supplies

SERGEANT KOLLIE TOWN, Liberia—Rubber gloves were nearly as scarce as doctors in this part of rural Liberia, so Melvin Korkor would swaddle his hands in plastic grocery bags to deliver babies.

His staff didn't bother even with those when a woman in her 30s stopped by complaining of a headache. Five nurses, a lab technician—then a local woman who was helping out—cared for her with their bare hands.

Within weeks, all of them died. The woman with a headache, they learned too late, had Ebola.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/ebola-doctors-with-no-rubber-gloves-1408142137