Medics needed in Ebola fight

A North Clare man, working with a charity in West Africa, is appealing for Irish medical professionals with experience of tropical diseases to offer their services in the fight to curtail the spread of the Ebola virus.

Ebola has now claimed the lives of 2,461 people in what has become the worst ever outbreak of the disease.

“If there are medical doctors in Ireland, who have any expertise in tropical diseases, they are needed. It is people like that who are needed out there to help manage this,” Damien Queally, deputy head of programmes, Plan Ireland, in West Africa said.

The Inagh man also called on Clare TD, Pat Breen to use his role as chairman of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade to increase Ireland’s support of those trying to combat the disease.

On Tuesday, the United States pledged troops, healthcare workers, materials to build field hospitals and medical supplies to support health professionals fighting the disease in West Africa. Mr Queally, who is co-ordinating Plan Ireland’s response to the disease in the region, said he hoped the help promised would arrive quickly.

“There is more talk about what different governments are going to do. It still needs to be set up and put in place and we need to have these isolation centres and treatment centres. People are showing up at the gates of hospitals and are being turned away. There is no space to accommodate them so all the promises of support need to be seen with hard evidence, in the form of more health centres and more trained medical doctors,” he said, after the World Health Organisation this week announced that there are no beds available for treatment of Ebola patients in Liberia.

“Dead body management”, Mr Queally believes, is a vital component to stalling the outbreak.

“Liberia is the worst affected country so far. The state authorities don’t have the resources, the people, the money to go out and pick up dead bodies in houses. There are bodies dead in houses for five days from Ebola,” he outlined.

This drastically increases the chances of infection, and long-term trauma, among those living in the house.

“We want to rent more vehicles, train more staff, bring in more materials, like masks and disinfectant, shovels and so on, so people can go to houses when people die [and bury the bodies] to avoid the risk of more people being contaminated,” Mr Queally said.

The rapid intensification of the crisis in West Africa is putting a strain on Plan’s financial and human resources, according to the Clare man.

“All this costs money, so money is needed,” he explained.

“People are worried about the situation because it is not just about contracting Ebola. If you fall or have a car accident or anything else, there is no health infrastructure really in place in Sierra Leone or in Liberia for treatment. A lot of the nurses or doctors, who are not responding to Ebola, have fled or are staying at home because they are afraid of contamination as well because the whole primary healthcare system has fallen down, putting pressure on our staff,” he continued.

“The limited resources we have are either used up or are committed to other projects, like the building of schools, which have been put on hold for the moment but the commitments have been made. It is not easy to free up those resources because they have been committed long-term so it is a case that we still need additional resources to increase this response,” he said.

The situation has deteriorated since Mr Queally last spoke to The Clare Champion in mid August.

“It was only in two areas in Liberia and three areas in Sierra Leone. Now it is in every district in Sierra Leone and pretty much all over Liberia. The infrastructure – roads, hospitals and clinics – is really poor in the country. Doctors and nurses are treating people with Ebola with no gloves, it is like suicide. Getting more of these materials to keep the staff responding to this outbreak, to keep them safe, requires significant resources, and then getting cars and fuel, disposal of dead bodies, counselling of children, all these things need additional resources as well,” he outlined.

“There are two things we would like, one is for people to provide money to the appeals, and actually help dispose of these bodies, to help children recover from trauma and to help ensure the health workers have the proper material and equipment to keep them safe,” he added.

“The second thing is that any medical professional with experience in tropical diseases, would they be willing to travel to the countries to support the medical response, the Ministry of Health or MSF in providing treatment,” Mr Queally continued.

“Maybe even for Pat Breen, in his role as chairman of the foreign affairs committee to discuss this with the Department of Foreign Affairs and see can the Irish Army engage with setting up medical centres and logistical help for these countries. We don’t want to draw resources away from people who are already stretched and busy but if he felt in his role as chairman of the foreign affairs committee that he could bring more attention to the crisis and lobby for more medical and human resources to the response, that would be helpful as well,” he added.

To support Plan’s work in West Africa or elsewhere, log on to www.plan.ie/donate/ or 1800 829829.