Canadian doctor Robert Fowler has seen the devastation of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa first-hand and says he now understands the challenges that health care workers there are facing.

Fowler is a critical care physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. He spent the last six months working with the World Health Organization, travelling back and forth to West Africa working on the frontlines with infected patients.

Fowler described the work as demanding: physically because of the intense heat and the long hours, but also emotionally, because the disease is so ruthless and because the challenges of working in countries with so little resources are so steep.

"Working in an Ebola treatment centre in West Africa, short of being in the middle of a war, is probably the hardest thing that I will ever encounter," Fowler told CTV News in an interview.

The Ebola outbreak has killed close to 3,000 people already and the WHO says it will likely kill thousands more before it is brought under control. As a doctor, Fowler said it's difficult to imagine the toll Ebola has taken on regular families living in these affected countries until one sees it.

'Clearly devastating'

"There are lots of people we have seen and treated for whom most of their family has been wiped out. That is clearly devastating for an individual who might survive," Fowler said.

Fowler has witnessed what happens when clinics become overwhelmed with patients, and new patients arrive to facilities that are already too full to care for them. Many of these patients simply lie down and die just outside clinic doors, he said.

What's most difficult, though, is trying to treat children who are already beyond help.

"It is very tough to treat a child who is very sick who doesn’t get better. Kids who die hit people very, very hard. And that is certainly the case with me," Fowler said.

Adding to the doctors' stress is knowing that they themselves are at risk of infection just by treating these patients, Fowler said.

To guard against infection, each health worker has to wear several layers of protection to reduce their risk, which include gowns, gloves, masks, goggles and head gear.

Even without the suit, the temperature was hot. But with the suit on, it was stifling.

Thermometers kept inside their pockets would show temperatures upwards of 40 and even 45 degrees, he said.

And because the suits are impervious, sweat begins collecting inside them fairly quickly. "So you lose a lot of water over the course of the work -- maybe a litre an hour," he said.

It's often when health workers try to readjust their overheating suits that they put themselves at risk of contamination by allowing their hands to get close to their eyes, nose or mouth.

"It's very easy to have a slip-up when you're in the facility, or even more so when you're coming out, because it's very hot," he said.

"There's a natural tendency to want to readjust things, to try to mop sweat away from your brow, and you have to be on guard all the time to not do those natural manoeuvres."

'I’m optimistic'

For those people living in the hardest hit parts of the countries, the Ebola outbreak has put an end to normal life, he said.

"People are almost entirely focused on this outbreak, not just in health care, but in the education system – all school has stopped – all aspects of life in these countries are affected," he said.

One consolation, Fowler said, is that about half the patients he and his teams have treated have been able to recover from the virus.

The key, though, is to treat patients early in their illness with fluids and electrolyte replacement and to have the supplies available to help them.

What's needed most now, Fowler said, is for more personnel to arrive to help and more supplies. But he's hopeful that will happen and that the disease will be brought under control.

"I’m optimistic in the sense that I think we can provide good care to patients if we have enough personnel there. I’m optimistic in the sense that we know how Ebola is transmitted, and we have the knowledge to contain it and to stop further infections.

"What we need now are more resources – both personnel and non-personnel to get the job done. Are we there yet? Not even close. Are we able to get there? Absolutely.”

With a report from CTV medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip