November 27: Care in the community
A hot, noisy night full of mosquitoes but empty of sleep. Today is a chance to get linked in to the local community and make sure that the Ebola Centre does not become a white (African) elephant,...
View ArticleNovember 28: Preparation is key for battle against Ebola
Back to the big city for our final preparation before we set up base in Moyamba for good. We need somewhere to stay on our return and have asked the Norwegians if we can camp with them while they...
View ArticleNovember 29: Tour provides an action plan for Ebola centre's opening
There is a strange separateness in the country, a new apartheid of Ebola. It manifests itself at an individual level in the enforced physical separateness of individuals, but also an apartheid between...
View ArticleNovember 30: An early epidemic warning that should have been heeded
Here’s an interesting discovery. In 2012 there was a major cholera epidemic in West Africa. Three countries were mainly affected - Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
View ArticleDecember 1: From statistics and facilities to the real people of Africa
The week slips seamlessly into the weekend. No one rests in the Ebola response teams. We visit our second Ebola Centre. This time in Laka, nearer to Freetown than Kerrytown, run by an Italian NGO...
View ArticleDecember 2: A fast response to a fast-growing problem
One last meeting in the big city. Donal Brown, Head of the UK Ebola Task Force, kindly agrees to meet me at the very lovely ISAT compound.
View ArticleDecember 3: Tired, hungry, smelly and hot... but a step closer
This is my life. I wake at dawn after a fitful sleep, unaccustomed to the heat and the noise, waking during the night with a list of problems running through my head.
View ArticleDecember 4: Paranoia runs high as Ebola aid workers evacuated
Another international health worker has been infected with Ebola, the third in the ten days since I have been here.
View ArticleDecember 5: Dilemmas of fevers and making friends
The WHO likes dividing its operations into clusters and pillars. For Ebola there are six pillars supporting the emergency response...
View ArticleDecember 6: Into the 'Red Zone' - my first Ebola centre encounter
At last my first clinical experience in an Ebola Centre. After the storm of problems setting up our Ebola Centre in Moyamba, the actual clinical job of looking after patients felt like a precious calm.
View ArticleDecember 7: Inspired by resilience, friendliness and simplicity of Sierra...
I feel guilty for not being back in Moyamba where conveys of trucks continue to arrive to fit out our Ebola hospital. However, I have settled in to a simple life in Bo.
View ArticleDecember 8: Excitement disappears with an everyday tragedy
A late shift yesterday for my final first-hand experience in the red zone before we open Moyamba. The white Ebola ward tents are baked by the mid-afternoon African sun and I manage only 45 minutes in...
View ArticleDecember 9: So near, but yet so far with training delay
Our Ebola Treatment Centre is looking perfect for our handover from the Royal Engineers. It’s a hospital, built in seven weeks in the middle of the African jungle. We have a tour around our new home...
View ArticleDecember 10: Moving in and kitting out ready for patients
Induction day and 160 new Sierra Leonean staff and the 12 Norwegians gather in the hanger-like kitchen tent for introductions and then a guided tour of their new home.
View ArticleDecember 11: Reality of tackling the Ebola menace is so different from vision
During the last three weeks I had a clear image in my head of the days leading up to the opening of our little hospital in the bush.
View ArticleDecember 12: Spreading Ebola truth as African rumour mill starts up again
Conspiracy theories swirl around every society, but never more than rural African ones, so it’s not surprising that crazy myths and rumours about our Ebola hospital have already started.
View ArticleDecember 14: Problems stack up as hospital opening gets closer
Our Ebola hospital waxes and wanes between storms of activity and lulls of calm. In the intensive phase the wards are full of PPE-clad worker bees swarming around the beds and corridors.
View ArticleDecember 15: Why romance is scarce under the Ebola rules
Love in a Time of Ebola would be a short sequel. The no-touch rule tends to constrain any amorous tendencies.
View ArticleDecember 16: Stricter Ebola guidelines will make return home so difficult
An early Christmas present from Public Health England. During our training in York we had a very reassuring talk from PHE about how we would not be quarantined on return to the UK. Science would be...
View ArticleDecember 17: Stunned and humbled by staff's devotion at Ebola 'holding centre'
The opening of our hospital is upon us and it is time to visit the dreaded Moyamba Ebola holding centre where our first patients will be be referred from.
View ArticleDecember 18: Official opening brings us a step closer to first patients at...
It’s Opening Day! I asked the District Medical Officer to come up with a programme and a guest-list, and 24 hours later we have 100 local VIPs including a government minister and press officials.
View ArticleDecember 19: E-Day arrives, along with our first three Ebola patients
With the planned opening hit by sniper fire on the first day, the rest of week crawls along on its hands and knees in search of cover.
View ArticleDecember 20: Ebola centre is up and running - but teething problems presist
Moyamba is Mende for ‘Send for Us’ and it feels quite appropriate today. The community has asked for help and we have come.
View ArticleDecember 20: Death arrives at our new Ebola centre
Ebola is a terrible disease. The pain, fever, exhaustion, confusion, diarrhoea and vomiting creates a carpet bombing attack on the human body.
View ArticleDecember 21: Planning a Christmas to remember miles from home
Christmas is coming. It is a time of families and friends, of giving and sharing, of joyfulness and celebration.
View ArticleDecember 22: Where are all the Ebola patients?
At night the Ebola hospital looks like the circus has come to Moyamba. There is little electricity in the town and our illuminated tents and security lighting provide a festival of light.
View ArticleDecember 24: Ebola centre water supply dries up - but we do have a cow
The President has given each district Ebola team a cow for Christmas. We are touched. Our cow grazes contentedly outside the Ebola Response Centre HQ. It would make a lovely pet with its large brown...
View ArticleDecember 23: An unexpected patient arrives at the Ebola centre
The District Medical Team have postponed the trip to Ribbi, so I spend the day in Moyamba. With our doors fully open for business we start getting a steady number of suspect case referrals to the...
View ArticleDecember 24: The Ebola troops wade in to bring order to Bradford
The morning Command and Control meeting is packed with increasingly outrageous stories about what the people of Bradford and Ribbi are up to. It sounds like some sort of Dionysian orgy.
View ArticleDecember 25: Christmas is cancelled in war-torn Moyamba
It is a red (zone) Christmas for me. The Ebola hospital is quiet but our patients fluctuate wildly in their fight against Ebola, sometimes well enough to get up and walk, but then dipping into...
View ArticleDecember 26: Mission almost complete thanks to local Ebola heroes
Christmas Day passes uneventfully. We are reminded at the morning Command and Control meeting that Ebola does not take a holiday, although in Moyamba apparently it does.
View ArticleDecember 30: Rollercoaster continues with news of Glasgow Ebola case
I had intended the previous blog to be my final one. Knowing when to stop is a judgement call, but my last day in Moyamba felt like an appropriate time.
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