Opinion

Protective gear a must for those fighting Ebola

A health worker in Kenema, Sierra Leone, checks the temperature of a girl believed to have Ebola. A health worker in Kenema, Sierra Leone, checks the temperature of a girl believed to have Ebola. Photo: Carl De Souza, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Carl De Souza, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Protective gear a must for those fighting Ebola 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

My friend and colleague, Dr. Modupeh Cole of Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone, died last week after being infected with Ebola from a patient he had touched without wearing protective gear.

His death is a call to action for better infection-control measures, because it did not happen as a result of negligence on his part. The protection he needed was simply unavailable. Though he was working in the hot zone where the epidemic has been raging for months, as an outpatient doctor, he was lucky to have rubber gloves.

Dr. Cole's death came after those of nearly all of the local providers who handled the first wave of cases, including Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, Sierra Leone's leading viral hemorrhagic fever expert. It galvanized Sierra Leone health workers, who went on strike, demanding better gear and safer conditions. The same has happened in neighboring Liberia. But absent a huge effort by the international community, it's hard to see how these front-line workers will get what they really need.

After years of civil war, health systems in the West African countries ravaged by this epidemic have been destroyed. Clinics and hospitals have no running water, much less disinfectant or enough protective gear for everyone in danger of being exposed. Even those who do have it are dying, because they can't keep themselves and their surroundings disinfected. So far, nearly 170 health care workers have been infected, and more than 80 have died, according to the World Health Organization.

Ebola is truly terrifying. But there is no mystery about how to stop it. What it will take is a coordinated effort to track down all of those who have come into contact with the ill. Those who have been stricken need to know that isolation centers are the best places for them to go and that going there will protect their family members from being infected.

But first, we need to protect those on the front lines. The health workers struggling to meet the needs of their population in a system ravaged by years of civil strife need basic training in how to stay safe from infection. Every health worker in the country must be supplied with protective gear, whether they work in isolation units or not, in facilities or out in the community.

Doctors Without Borders, which has yet to suffer an Ebola casualty, has shown it is possible to treat the epidemic without endangering the lives of health workers. But they are a small organization that is doing all it can.

After years of civil conflict, Sierra Leone and Liberia have among the world's lowest doctor-to-patient ratios, as few as 1 or 2 for every 100,000 people. Losing more of them would be a disaster with repercussions for generations to come.