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WIRED 2015 is our annual two-day celebration of the innovators, inventors, artists and entrepreneurs who are reinventing our world. For more from the event, head over to our WIRED 2015 hub. "Right now, would the world be better prepared for the next health outbreak? That's the question that we all need to ask ourselves," Freeman Osonuga, a doctor who spent six months fighting ebola in Sierra Leone, told WIRED 2015 at London's Tobacco Dock.

We knew we had to develop a more robust, a more daring a more effective treatment protocol so as to increase survival rates Freeman Osonuga, frontline ebola doctor


Osonuga experienced doubts about going to combat the disease, he said, not just because of the infectious nature of ebola but also because those who spend time around it risk being stigmatised and feared. "Along the line I found peace from within. I decided I was not going to be captured by fear. I decided to go."

As part of a team working for the Nigerian government and seconded to the African Union Support For Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, Osanuga and his colleagues worked to develop a better way of treating the disease.

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Frontline ebola doctor Vincent Whiteman WIRED

"We knew we had to develop a more robust, a more daring, a more effective treatment protocol so as to increase survival rates," he explained.

By ensuring the administration of intravenous fluids, patients were kept hydrated. The team also had access to anaesthetic and antimalarials to treat and lessen the effects of related, but equally dangerous, health conditions.

From 157 patients admitted to Osonuga's group's care, 101 survived, a survival rate of almost 65 percent -- well above the 50 percent overall survival rate seen elsewhere across Africa. A number of healthcare workers at the treatment centre were ebola survivors themselves. Combined with strict infection prevention measures, that also ensured that none of the 200 staff were infected.


Gallery: Prepare for the next outbreak now, ebola doctor urges Gallery Gallery: Prepare for the next outbreak now, ebola doctor urges + 4

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"All through the mission I was guided by the principle: don't try to be a hero, just be professional," Osonuga said. "Do the best that you can do within the circumstances without getting unduly emotionally attached. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made."

But Osonuga's final message was one of caution: how prepared are we for the next outbreak? "The world never expected that a small outbreak from a village in one part of the world would affect the rest of the world. The world never prepared for a health outbreak of this magnitude. That is important for us because we need to start to prepare for the next health outbreak."