A CONSULTANT is leading the first NHS team of volunteers travelling to West Africa to help the fight the deadly Ebola virus.

Professor John Wright has undergone nine days of intensive training at the Ministry of Defence’s Army Medical Services Training Centre near York to prepare for the daunting mission.

A team of 30 NHS staff and 25 Norwegian doctors and nurses will travel to Sierra Leone this week, where they will work in an Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) being built by the Royal Engineers in Moyambe.

More than 1,000 medics volunteered and Prof Wright was chosen to be part of the first team selected.

“I put my name on the emergency NHS volunteers list and about a week later I got a phone call late at night to say they wanted me to go. My life has been turned upside down since,” said Prof Wright.

He said a “flicker of flattery” was “quickly drowned by a wave of panic” as reality hit.

“I’m feeling nervous and trepidation. You can’t help but see what’s going on in West Africa and see it’s a totally scary situation, but I talked to my wife and family and they’ve been very supportive,” Prof Wright said.

The Bradford Royal Infirmary clinical epidemiologist worked in Africa in the early 1990s during the TB and HIV epidemics. When he moved to Bradford in 1996, he continued his overseas work, returning every year.

The government is funding the project and four organisations, including Doctors of the World which Prof Wright is travelling with, are making the arrangements.

Prof Wright, who is also the chief investigator of the Born in Bradford cohort study and director of Bradford Institute for Health Research, said life had been on hold since he was selected.

He praised the “fantastic” army facilities at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks, which include a replica ETC, where the temperature was hiked up to 30 degrees to simulate conditions in Sierra Leone.

A full day of the training included how to safely put on and remove stifling protection suits.

“It takes ten minutes to put it on and 20 minutes to take off, that’s the dangerous bit. The nurses and doctors that have died have got Ebola through taking off the suits,” Prof Wright said.

Volunteers work together to check they’re removing the suits properly and use chlorine baths to disinfect themselves in a “life and death Full Monty”.

“We’ve been practising looking after patients and what we’ve got to do.

“Now we’ve been doing the training for a week, I think I’m just itching to get out there and help.”

His decision has been supported by his employer, Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Its chief executive Professor Clive Kay said: “Professor John Wright has a wealth of experience in Africa and we hope the people of Sierra Leone will benefit from this expertise.

“We wish him good luck and safe keeping during his endeavour.”