Ebola: Voices From The Epicentre Of The Epidemic

As Ebola spreads across west Africa, we talk to the medical and humanitarian professionals scrambling to contain the spread of the disease

The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is unrelenting: according to the World Health Organisation there have now been 888 cases and 539 deaths across Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since the virus was first reported in March this year. The epidemic is unprecedented and the global health community has been left scrambling to contain the disease, for which there is no vaccine or cure.  

In a bid to boost the response to the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) convened a special meeting on 2-3 July in Accra, Ghana, with health ministers from 11 West African countries and partners involved in tackling the disease.  Here, professionals involved in fighting the deadly virus share their experiences of what it’s like to be at the epicentre of the epidemic.  Dr Ibrahim Bah, medical supervisor at the isolation centre of Hôpital National de Donka, Conakry, Guinea

I work in the department for infectious and tropical diseases so I am used to working on epidemics but this is the first time I have dealt with Ebola. It is a new disease in Guinea. Before Médecins Sans Frontières arrived, we had no specific training on dealing with the virus. At the beginning, I was scared: I saw people haemorrhaging to death...