Af Melanie Mayhew, Verdensbanken
De overbebyrdede sundhedsarbejdere i frontlinje-staterne mod “Dødens Fortrop” tjente deres land, men selv den mindste fejl kunne koste dem alt – som laboratoriemanden, der blev smittet, da han fik bare en enkelt bloddråbe på sin ubeskyttede pande.
FREETOWN, 7th. April 2015 (World Bank): Sidie, a lab technician in Sierra Leone, covered himself, from head to toe, in protective gear that left no skin uncovered.
With syringes (injektionssprøjter) in hand, he asked the mother once, twice, five times to hold her 4-year-old son so he could take his blood.
But as she lay near her 8-year-old daughter, he realized that Ebola had already taken her. Her daughter would soon die, too.
He held the boy and began taking his blood. Three milliliters filled the syringe, with just a few more to go.
All it took was one drop of blood
Then the boy pulled away with the needle still in his arm – and blood sprayed upward, leaving a droplet on Sidie’s forehead (pande), where his face mask had slipped down his sweaty brow.
“I have already been infected,” he thought at that moment. He had safely taken blood samples from about 100 suspected Ebola patients, but, this time, all it took was one drop.
A week later, Sidie, 49, started aching (fik smerter). Then he lost his appetite, and battled a headache, hiccups (hikke) and extreme thirst.
A lab test – the one he had administered so many times – confirmed that he had Ebola.
Paying tribute to their heroic work
Sidie is one of 891 health workers who have contracted (pådraget sig) Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the start of the outbreak, which has taken more than 10,000 lives and led to more than 25,000 infections.
Throughout the crisis, health care workers like Sidie have been on the frontlines, risking their lives and livelihoods to end Ebola and restore essential health services in the hardest-hit countries.
On this year’s World Health Day (April 7) and during World Health Worker Week (April 6-10), many are paying tribute to their heroic work, as well as to the foreign medical teams that came to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to lend a helping hand.
Early Losses
Before Ebola, the three hardest-hit countries already had a severe health worker shortage.
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea ranked 2nd, 5th and 28th from the bottom among 193 countries in terms of doctors per 1,000 of the population, according to WHO.
In Liberia, for example, there were only about 117 doctors for the entire country of 4.3 million.
Early in the Ebola crisis, health workers were some of the first people to lose their lives.
Many treated patients without wearing protective gear, unaware that they were helping people who had Ebola.
Died after treating fellow healthworkers
Some of the symptoms of Ebola mimic other diseases, such as malaria – but Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids.
Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, where the capital city’s first case was admitted, was one of the first health facilities to lose health workers.
A doctor, nurse, a physician’s assistant and a well-known Ugandan surgeon died there after contracting Ebola, some from treating fellow health workers.
Dr. Mohammed Sankoh is the medical director of Redemption Hospital.
During the height of the Ebola crisis, the hospital faced a health worker shortage because some stayed home, fearing they would lose their lives like their colleagues.
Because of the influx of Ebola patients, the hospital shut down in-patient services including maternal and child health, surgery and trauma, for several weeks.
“The whole area was infectious and infected,” Dr. Sankoh said.
Infection Control Measures and Hazard Payments
Læs videre på
http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/04/06/healt-workers-on-ebola-frontlines-serve-countries-risk-own-lives
