Ghanaian doctor recounts traumatic experience with Ebola in Liberia

With over 500 health workers already dead from the Ebola scourge, Ghanaian volunteer, Dr. Osei Poku, recalls the moment after touching an Ebola patient, when he felt afraid that he could become another fatal statistic.“The first day I saw a patient diagnosed with Ebola and I actually touched the patient and this was a patient […]

With over 500 health workers already dead from the Ebola scourge, Ghanaian volunteer, Dr. Osei Poku, recalls the moment after touching an Ebola patient, when he felt afraid that he could become another fatal statistic.
“The first day I saw a patient diagnosed with Ebola and I actually touched the patient and this was a patient in an advanced stage, bleeding mouth and nose, I was terrified,” despite wearing three gloves instead of the conventional two, he said.
Dr. Osei Poku is still afraid that his protective gloves and suits could fail in protecting him from the deadliest epidemic. The doctor was part of a 42-health personnel volunteer team from Ghana dispatched to countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea where the tragic effects of Ebola had claimed the lives of many people.
In the beginning, the mention of Ebola sent shivers down the spines of people so much so that even health personnel in Ghana once said if they saw an Ebola patient, they would run away from their duty posts.
However, today the disease has been demystified through education and awareness creation leading to 42 health workers volunteering to be part of a regional team sent to the three most affected countries in West Africa to help fight the disease.
Health personnel were deplored as part of a regional response coordinated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Fifty-three frontline health workers from Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali were dispatched to Guinea to help tackle the Ebola epidemic in that country in December 2, 2014. Another batch of 29 workers was sent to Sierra Leone, while 49 others were deployed to Liberia on December 5, 2014.
The volunteers, including 42 Ghanaians, were trained and deployed to the health ministries in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The health workers, included doctors, nurses, epidemiologists and public health experts, who were drawn from Ghana, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
They spent three months in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and were quarantined in Ivory Coast for 21 days to ensure they were free from the deadly virus before they returned to their various countries.
But that moment in Liberia is engraved in Dr. Poku’s mind. Ebola in Liberia, “I had a strong surge of feeling. I felt like tearing…for the next 21 days I was just monitoring myself. I didn’t know what to think”.
A father of two, Dr. Poku recounted how he formed part of the Ghanaian team at a time when some health workers in the country had expressed fears that they would abandon their post if Ebola ever got reported at a health centre.
 He said he was part of a regional taskforce committee in Ghana training health workers on how to prepare for Ebola if it was reported.
“It was all talk, very little practical experience”, he said until the opportunity came to go to Liberia after ECOWAS leaders agreed to send professional support to Ebola-affected countries.
Looking back, he says it is an “honour” to have served in Liberia.” He expressed gratitude to God for the opportunity.“We went, we saw and by God’s grace we helped conquer and we are back”, the brave doctor said.
Training To date
A number of workers have been trained under WHO’s guidance. In Guinea, the WHO, with other partners, has trained 75 doctors to supervise health-care workers conducting contact tracing; while 50 doctors have been previously trained and deployed. The goal is to have six doctors in each of the active 17 prefectures.
In Liberia, working with the Ministry of Health (MOH), WHO has trained around 100 participants in the hot zone and is expanding its hot-zone training capacity. WHO will deliver in-clinic training to 40 national and international personnel per week over two training sessions.
Nearly 1000 Ebola treatment unit personnel have been trained in cold case management due to the collective efforts of WHO, MOH-Liberia and the US Department of Defence.
In Sierra Leone, the Government of United Kingdom and WHO have trained about 4,115 health-care workers, hygienists and trainers in basic personal protective equipment, infection prevention and control, and site layout.
With such training programmes, and provision of the necessary resources, the fears, such as were entertained by Dr Osei  Poku could be allayed among health personnel who have to manage Ebola cases.

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