The Dickey Center hosted an informational panel yesterday evening titled “Ebola in West Africa: Lessons from a Global Health Crisis,” featuring health workers involved in the Ebola crisis in West Africa. The panel, held in Filene Auditorium, highlighted the work being done by health officials to combat the disease, Dickey’s Global Health Initiative program manager Jessica Friedman said.
She noted that the event provided another perspective on the crisis than the one portrayed in the media, adding that this epidemic demonstrated the potential security implications of a public health crisis.
The event started with a keynote address by the current director of the Global Migration and Quarantine division of the Center for Disease Control Martin Cetron, a member of the Class of 1981. He provided a brief history on the Ebola virus, calling it “a rare and deadly disease, previously the stuff of movies” that saw few outbreaks before the recent 2014 epidemic in West Africa. The disease is incredibly lethal by any standard, Cetron said, and its impact is exacerbated by extreme poverty and weak health care systems in West Africa.
He said that the United States — which brought back two American missionaries infected with the virus abroad for treatment at Emory University — faced logistical challenges transporting the patients as well as questions about the “ethical use of quarantine” domestically and internationally. President Barack Obama was essential to promoting international efforts to combat the disease, he said. He noted that the United States expanded its Ebola management capabilities since the first infected missionary arrived on Sept. 30.
Cetron said that addressing the epidemic in West Africa requires multi-agency coordination and that the CDC encountered a wealth of challenges in confronting the disease’s progress. He noted that porous national borders, a lack of health care resources and mobile populations poses specific problems for treating and preventing the spread of Ebola. He added that the communities affected also had a “bankruptcy of trust” in government officials due to decades of war and corruption.
The biggest progress in preventing infections, he said, was made by encouraging a change in traditional burial practices, which exposes many to the highly contagious bodies of those infected. The CDC, in coordination with local and international health agencies, also promoted educational campaigns, exit screening and containment initiatives, he said.
He noted the importance of shifting the perspective of the situation from that of a health epidemic to a humanitarian crisis.
The panelist portion opened up with Geisel School of Medicine professor Elizabeth Talbot, who joined the conversation via Skype from Sierra Leone, where she works as the training Coordinator for the International Medical Corps. She said that she decided to use her skills to educate health workers because she “was very moved by the epidemic.”
She said that she decided to work in Sierra Leone because of the pressing need in the country. She noted that in her experience on the ground she found that survivors of Ebola often didn’t seek formal treatment because of misinformation and the stigma surrounding the virus.
The Ebola epidemic “blind-sided” the international health community, she said, noting that agencies learned to adapt to the spread of the disease and develop new strategic responses for similar situations. Talbot said that she hopes the public health structure will be enhanced to combat epidemics in the future.
Lu’aie Kailani, a fellow in infectious disease at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said he worked directly with Ebola patients in Liberia. He said he focused on infection prevention and control and worked “hands-on” in Ebola treatment centers across the area. Kailani said that the guidelines for each treatment center were different, from uniforms to cleaning processes.
He said that his interest in Ebola stemmed from many sources, including his current work toward a master of public health degree from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He noted similarities between this outbreak and the HIV outbreak in the 1980s.
The final panelist, Susan Amundsen, an advanced practice registered nurse with a master’s of science in nursing, said she researched historical Ebola outbreaks and said she wanted to provide those present at the panel a “boots-on-the-ground feeling” about the situation.
She said that health officials must have flexibility in combatting an evolving medical situation, such as the Ebola epidemic, noting that official training and uniforms of health care workers changed during her stay.
After the formal discussion, the panel opened up to questions from the audience. One member asked about the political difficulties of addressing the Ebola epidemic. Cetron said that a “crisis of this magnitude doesn’t have a single czar who calls the shots” and that the prevention effort required a multifaceted response. He noted that the international nature of the public health crisis required action from multiple political and non-governmental actors.
Hilary Johnson ’15 said that she was impressed by the panel and originally came because of her interest in understanding epidemics from an engineering standpoint. She said that the event both provided information and offered humanizing portraits of the victims of Ebola.
