Ebola medics get tech tablet

A computer tablet which can withstand being dropped into chlorine and sterilised has been designed by technology experts to aid medical staff working in the parts of Africa hardest hit by the ebola outbreak.

As cases of the killer disease reached their peak in 2014, Médecins Sans Frontières reached out to the tech community, appealing for a way to help medical staff record patients’ notes quickly and accurately while in high-risk zones.

“Medics working in the west African heat could spend only an hour at a time inside the personal protective suits, and usually spent the final 10 minutes of their shift shouting basic patient notes over a fence to a colleague on the other side, as even a piece of paper leaving the high-risk zone posed an infection risk,” an MSF spokesman said.