EIGHTY FOUR Army medics have been deployed to west Africa to help in the battle against the deadly Ebola virus.

Members of 35 Squadron, 5 Medical Regiment, which is based at Gaza Barracks, Catterick Garrison, were due to fly to Sierra Leone today (Tuesday, October 21) to man the Ebola Training Academy, near the capital, Freetown.

Major Mike Taylor said the medics had been given just a week's notice of the mission to train thousands of Sierra Leonean health workers to safely deal with the virus, which has killed about 4,500 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

He said the operation aimed to slow the rate doctors and nurses from the country are being infected, and train the health care workers who will be working in the five Ebola treatment units the UK is building.

Maj Taylor said ahead of operation, in which the soldiers will have to work in humid conditions of up to 40C, the medics had received several days' training about how to operate in an environment with an Ebola outbreak.

The medics, some of whom recently returned from a vaccinations operation in Kenya, have also been briefed on cultural differences they will face in Sierra Leone, 50 per cent of the population of which is aged 14 or below.

Members of the regiment, which took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, will also receive four days training at a field hospital before starting work at the training academy, a role which is expected to last until early December.

He said: "It's not the normal thing we go and do and it is a slightly different enemy that we can't see, so it is quite difficult.

"There is a bit of apprehension, normally there is a longer period to prepare, but there is also a bit of excitement about what we are going to do, as they understand it is going to make a big difference."

The soldiers will not be wearing full body protective suits as the risk of them being exposed to the virus is thought to be low.

The deployment follows 91 British Army medics from 22 Field Hospital being sent to the Sierra Leone last week to run a treatment centre set aside for health workers who risk infection.