WHO: Medical worker infections and shortages hamper Ebola response
Lisa Schnirring
CIDRAP News
Aug 25, 2014
Two medical workers assisting with the Ebola outbreak response in Sierra Leone have been sickened by the disease, one of them deployed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the other a British nurse who was airlifted to a London hospital for treatment.
News of two more infected aid workers comes as the WHO today expressed heightened concerns about the impact the outbreak is having on health workers battling the disease and obstacles the infections pose to getting enough workers from overseas to staff treatment centers.
Response worker infections
According to media reports, the WHO-deployed health worker is an epidemiologist from Senegal. The WHO said on its Twitter feed that the worker is with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). In a statement yesterday the WHO said it was working to ensure that the patient, who got sick in Sierra Leone, has the best care possible, with the option of medical evacuation if needed.
The health worker was in Kailahun district tracing Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases, according to Politico SL, a newspaper based in Sierra Leone. The district has been one of Sierra Leone’s EVD hot spots.
The WHO said it has so far deployed about 400 staff members of its own and from partner organizations, and the patient is the first of that number to be infected in the outbreak. It added that it recognized the risk Ebola virus poses to health workers and takes many precautions before they deploy to help them protect themselves in the field.
Meanwhile, Public Health England (PHE) yesterday said a British national living in Sierra Leone has been diagnosed with EVD and is being medically evacuated to the United Kingdom, to be treated in an isolation unit at the Royal Free NHS Foundation hospital in London. It said the patient was not currently in serious condition.
John Watson, MBBS, MSc, PHE’s deputy chief medical officer, said in the statement that the UK has a robust, well-tested system for handling unusual infectious diseases and that the country’s hospitals have a proven record of managing imported infectious diseases. “This patient will be isolated and will receive the best care possible.”
The PHE said it would provide no other details about the patient, to protect the patient’s privacy. However, according to a media report, the patient is a man who has been working as a volunteer nurse at Kenema Government Hospital over the last 3 months.
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