An Ebola Medalist for Service in West Africa talks to Proelium Law LLP about the risks they witnessed in Sierra Leone during the 2013-16 outbreak.
Ebola Safety Protocols
“There is a particular situation which I lost a bit of sleep worrying over when I first arrived at my extremely rural posting in a one of the hardest hit parts of Sierra Leone. My organization was incredibly diligent when it came to security and I was living in a large, well-managed “expat” base with high walls, old friends and numerous security guards. My counterpart at another large multinational health agency working in the area, a young female medico, was not in such a secure situation. Her organization had left her living alone on the outskirts of the town, far from our compound and with a number of local men with guns acting as drivers and security guards. As she had never left her home country in South Asia before she was not concerned by her situation and circumstances.
Thankfully her deployment came to an end before the epidemic in the area concluded. I say thankfully, because when it was announced that the organization I was working for would be pulling out of the area that very night our security team robbed our offices and supply buildings. The compound where all of our expat staff were sleeping at the time was away from those offices and too well protected for anyone to even consider attempting a robbery. However, this experience made it obvious to me that the medico was at risk of a potentially violent home invasion and robbery at her location. She should not have accepted the housing her organization provided her with but she was too new to such an environment to know it.”
“Many of the collaborating international organizations had different safety standards and often unknowingly (and in some cases knowingly) compromised the other’s safety protocols.”
Biosecurity
“Many of the collaborating international organizations had different safety standards and often unknowingly (and in some cases knowingly) compromised the other’s safety protocols. These breaches included important biosecurity protocols, such as whether a person feeling ill ought to come into work, who they should notify and when, where and how they should have their blood drawn for testing if they became a suspected case. The organization I worked for monitored the temperatures of all staff closely and policed a strict “no touching” policy too. However, other organizations did not maintain such standards.
At one interagency strategy meeting an epidemiologist from another organization was found slumped over one of the desks after the lunch break. When approached he explained that he had been suffering from some gastroenteritis-like illness for several days and was now feverish and weak. Those symptoms, along with his potential contact with confirmed Ebola infected patients, would have seen him admitted to an Ebola treatment centre for testing and observation by my organization’s protocols, and certainly he would not have been allowed to attend large meetings where he could potentially spread the disease to many more people. Fortunately, it turned out that typhoid rather than Ebola was the cause of his illness.”
Interagency Communication
“Without better shared communication and monitoring systems, along with appropriate training in using it prior to being deployed to the field, we were often left blind to emerging risks and important epidemiological information that other agencies were aware of. For example when an individual with a confirmed case of Ebola was admitted at another agency’s Ebola treatment centre, but who had previously visited our organization’s area whilst symptomatic, that information that was not passed on. Instances like this, with the potential for huge epidemiological consequences and further loss of life, would often not get through.”
Jenny Thornton is an occasional blogger for Proelium Law LLP. Jenny holds an MA in Geography & Social Anthropology from St Andrews University and is a current International Relations postgraduate at the University of Cambridge. Her particular interests include international development, international law, and politically complex environments in sub-Saharan Africa. Follow Jenny on Twitter @JenThornt.
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