McKesson donates latex glove supplies to Sierra Leone health workers who are treating Ebola victims

SEATTLE — McKesson donated four million pairs of latex gloves — enough to meet the entire country of Sierra Leone's needs for the next five months — to World Vision, the wholesaler announced Thursday.

 

Before the government of Sierra Leone institutes a three-day quarantine to contain the spread of Ebola, World Vision will begin a delivery of 200 pallets of medical relief supplies – thanks to private donations. Through World Vision's participation in the World Health Organization's Ebola Task Force, the gloves will be distributed to health workers who often find themselves treating patients without the proper supplies needed to prevent them from contracting Ebola.

 

"I am very thankful that we are in a position to donate these medical supplies at a time when the help is so desperately needed in West Africa," stated Stanton McComb, president, McKesson Medical-Surgical. "At McKesson, we're in the business of delivering better health to our customers and we're proud to partner with a great organization like World Vision to help make a real difference where it matters most."

 

"Health professionals and humanitarian aid workers are in an incredibly challenging and dangerous situation in Sierra Leone," said Leslie Scott, national director of World Vision Sierra Leone. "These medical supplies will support the men and women who are putting their lives on the line to respond to the Ebola crisis."

 

The gloves, and other critical supplies for public health workers, will be shipped to Sierra Leone on a chartered Boeing 747-400 flight that departs New York on Monday, Sept. 22. The supplies will be transported to New York from World Vision's warehouse in Pittsburgh starting today.

 

In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that the toll of the Ebola crisis would be lessened if hospital workers had more access to disposable rubber gloves.

 

McKesson Medical-Surgical's glove donation is part of a shipment of personal protective equipment, or PPE, kits that World Vision is supplying to health workers in Sierra Leone, helping to ensure that those caring for people infected with Ebola – a highly-contagious and deadly virus that kills more than half of those it infects – will themselves be protected.

 

The contents of a PPE kit include:

 

 

In addition, 8,000 gallons of disinfectant were donated to World Vision and are being shipped with the PPE kits. Several of the items in the PPE kit were donated by Alpha Pro Tech, a manufacturer and distributor of protective apparel and infection control products.

 

Once the supplies arrive in Sierra Leone, World Vision and the country's Emergency Operations Center will collaborate to deliver them to health workers nationwide. In total, World Vision will ship nearly 240,000 pounds of donated medical supplies to Sierra Leone.

 

From Sept. 19 to 21, the government of Sierra Leone is mandating a nationwide three-day quarantine in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.