Every three months for the past 18 years medical staff at Johannesburg's Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital have been conducting infection control drills.

And, as in Ebola-ravished West Africa, the drills are now being conducted weekly.

Though the men and women at the forefront of the fight against infectious diseasesbelieve an outbreak of Ebola in South Africa is unlikely, they are not taking any chances.

"South Africa has a baseline to work from," said medical scientist Jaqueline Weyer of the Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. Every year, state hospitals treat Congo fever cases, without the disease spreading to healthcare workers.

Caught from ticks, Congo fever, like Ebola, is transmitted by bodily fluids.

Congo fever patients are isolated and treated by staff in protective gear and most hospitals that treat Congo fever are among the 11 that have been designated to treat Ebola.

The hospital's infection control expert, Guy Richards, said two US nurses contracted Ebola from a patient in Dallas because there were not enough infection control systems in place.

"The US ran into trouble, they didn't use the buddy system, which we developed in 1996," Richards said.

Richards has now developed a tight infection control system that involves an infection control nurse keeping track of which doctors and nurses treat a patient.

In addition, anyone putting on and removing protective gear is observed closely by another healthcare worker.

Similar drills are taking place at other hospitals.

At Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria specialised staff have been trained to deal with suspected Ebola cases.

Richards says anyone treating a suspected Ebola patient is required to wear a special respirator mask, which creates an airtight seal against the user's face and protects him or her from airborne vomit and spit.

Richards has just published a paper with Australian colleagues, suggesting that the WHO change its protocols to include the respirator mask.

Other protective measures include the use of an ante-room separating the patient from the outside world.