Netop hjemvendt fra Liberia fortæller en af de mest erfarne ebola-sygeplejersker sin historie om kampen mod den dødelige epidemi. Blandt hans råd er at forberede sig på det uventede, for ebola kan bryde ud hvor som helst.
GULU, UGANDA: Tony Walter Onena is a retired registered nurse from Gulu, Uganda and probably the only health worker to have beat Ebola 6 times: 5 times in Uganda in 2000, 2007, three outbreaks in 2012 and now he beat it in Monrovia, Liberia.
Tony is a strong personality, he doesn’t fear anything: Ebola, jealous colleagues, hospital directors, international researchers or presidents who want to direct him against best Ebola care practices.
When Ebola struck Gulu in Uganda in 2000 Tony didn’t know at first what it was until he attended a funeral in a village where people talked about a disease that would strike you and that meant you would die.
When he returned to Gulu the medical director of Gulu Referral Hospital Dr. Felix Kaducu requested nurses and doctors to come and work in the Ebola isolation ward.
Nobody volunteered – except Tony Walter and a handful of staff. After him, volunteers slowly reported in when WHO and the Ministry of Health organized special payments.
One of the first specially trained WHO experts that came to Gulu, Dr. Simon Mardel, immediately caught Tony’s full attention because his practical and simple training methods made sense in Gulu.
Tony secretly recorded every training the WHO expert held and he learned all the procedures by heart.
The expert was particularly keen on strictly sticking to simple routines and Tony more than once saw how the expert would loudly and promptly criticize anybody who was sloppy, lazy or careless in handling infective patient material, blood or linen.
In the beginning they only had simple gloves and their plain clothes but the expert brought in the idea of triple gloves, protective suits and basic protective routines handling patients.
Follow the money
Tony was worried about the payment issue, an issue that would come up again and again, also in Liberia.
The introduction of a special payment for Ebola work tended to attract a type of health workers that were charmed by the extra allowance more than they were dedicated to being careful health professionals working in a hazardous environment.
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