A WHO Health Worker Teaches Trainee Health Workers How To Put On A Protective Suit In Freetown
A World Health Organization (WHO) health worker teaches trainee health workers how to put on a protective suit in Freetown September 30, 2014. The death toll from the world's worst Ebola outbreak on record reached 3,338 people out of 7,178 cases in West Africa as of Sept. 28, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. Picture taken September 30. Reuters/Umaru Fofana

Fears of a chemical or bacteriological attack are being raised in Paris following the report on Sunday by the public hospital authority of theft of protective health outfits from a locked room in a city hospital. On Thursday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls warned of those risks in a speech at the National Assembly.

The missing items are a dozen hermetic protective overalls, three dozen pairs of special boots that are resistant to chemical agents, gloves and anti-bacterial masks, reports Associated Press. The items were stolen from the Necker Hospital and was discovered on Thursday. Necker had a large stock of the protective clothing since it is possibly used by patients who had the Ebola virus. It was reported by the Assistance Publique Hospitaux de Paris to a local police station.

But the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) points out that the users of the protective suits should expect performance degradation during use. It is particularly noticeable in a warm weather when the suits respire. And during hard physical work, the surplus energy is trapped, causing overheating and the wearer at the risk of collapse. And even if it is approaching winter in Paris, the OPCW notes that performance also degrades during cooler weather.

Despite the theft, Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian insists that all precautions have been taken to avoid those kinds of risks, reports the Strait Times. Among these precautionary measures is the issuance of an authorization for army pharmacies to distribute an antidote for chemical weapons to civilian emergency services in France.

It is part of preparations for the 2015 Climate Conference in Paris that would push through despite the Nov 13 terror attacks in the French capital.

Drian adds that outside France, the country’s military would launch air strikes on the Daesh in Syria. The French jets would fly out of the Charles de Gaulle Airport beginning on Monday and target Raqa, the de facto capital of Syria.

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