Want to know what it is like to work in an #Ebola treatment unit. I wrote this after my first deployment in Sierra Leone in 2014.
I pray for & think of DRC’s healthcare workers now. But prayers aren’t enough- resources, help & solidarity are needed.
www.npr.org/sections/goa...
One patient told infectious disease physician Nahid Bhadelia, "I am nobody." After 12 days in Sierra Leone, caring for the sick, she couldn't disagree more.
West African Ebola epidemic caused over 28k cases & 11k deaths. When you hear comparisons between beginnings of that & current DRC outbreak, don’t think numbers. You have to think in families & communities to really understand why global solidarity is important.
Healthcare workers shouldn't be martyrs.
Yet we expect them to suffer to save others, time & again. These conversations brought me back to Ebola 2014 when I met nurses in W Africa suffering because they lacked basic protection.
@bhadeliamd.bsky.social was there.
www.newsweek.com/fight-agains...
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia
Amy Maxmen, PhD
And it definitely doesn't make USA's standing around the world any better when our actions incite protests.
How is transporting sick people SAFER for the patients and people transporting them than a controlled repatriation of an exposed but non infectious patient (Ebola doesn't transmit until symptoms develop) to quarantine in US.
Clearly it's not about saving money- because it takes $$$$$ to set up a huge quarantine/care center on a schedule. And it may expose more Americans to Ebola if not done correctly (the public health commission corps officers sent to provide care at facility).
Avg incubation period for Ebola is 8-10 days (4-6d for high risk exposures like needle sticks). Flight back to US could be <20 hours. Unclear how keeping Americans in Kenya UNTIL they are sick is better for them than transporting them back to quarantine closer to US facilities.
I went back 3 times after this deployment and then worked in Uganda at the border of DRC for a few years because…. Because what I wrote then still rings true now and always.
NEW from Brooke Nichols & team, procurement brief estimates demand for diagnostics for Bundibugyo virus outbreak, w & w/o rapid diagnostics, makes case for why investment for rapid dx is critical.
Model: hivst-hst-tradeoff.shinyapps.io/bvd-diagnost...
Brief: www.bu.edu/ceid/publica...
It's here officially (although suspected for a few months). The implications for US livestock industry are immense.
New World screwworm detected in US livestock for the first time since 1966 in Zavala County, Texas via @beaconbio.bsky.social - beaconbio.org/en/report/?r...
