‘I saw despair, pain but medics’ dedication was admirable’

The scenes were scary. Even for eyes accustomed to patients’ anguish in hospital, watching helplessly as some died, was painful.

“The medical teams put the bodies in bags for burial by a special team.... relatives and loved ones wanted to accord them cultural rituals like washing, but the teams could not let them as this could fuel more infections,” notes Dr Elizabeth Mgamb.

“I saw despair, pain yet the strength to live by the patients and the dedication by the medical teams was admirable.”

And so is Dr Mgamb’s will to confront dreaded Ebola. Rather than back off, she had the gut to make a second journey to a region now ravaged by the highly infectious disease. In March, the rapidly evolving outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever began in Guinea before spreading to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Senegal citing the need for countries like Kenya that were one flight away to apply precautionary screening measures.

And the following month, Dr Mgamb was among the first international teams sent to West Africa. “In Liberia, we responded to alert cases within the communities by offering public health education, training health workers and later responding to cases and assisting to trace those who had been in contact with the infected,” she says of the two-week mission.

On August 8, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and a fortnight later the global health body issued a ‘road map’ to scale up international response.

Six days later, the epidemiologist was again on flight as one of the two doctors sent by the government to assess the airport screening protocol in the four affected countries. The 30-year-old and a mother to four-year-old boy says her mission was at the centre of her heart for her country.

The five-day stay with a colleague Dr David Oluoch would see them visit airports in four countries. “We headed to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia and finally Nigeria determined to come home with lessons on how to best handle our airports in terms of screening,” Dr Mgamb says.

But this did spare her some reservations from some friends and loved ones who thought the trip was a riskier mission than humanitarian. “I faced doubts from some people that I would be infected but I chose to believe in my training, God and the support from other friends, colleagues and family who believed we would return in one piece, uninfected,” Dr Mgamb tells The Standard on Saturday in an interview.

She lauds surveillance at airports to contain the disease: “In case they identified a suspected case either due to their high temperature or general body weakness, flu and other signs and symptoms, they were led to a separate holding room where further investigations would be conducted before they were allowed to travel,” Dr Mgamb points out.

In Liberia, she adds that she was motivated by the morale of the port health workers who held debriefing meetings daily  to draw lessons from their experiences and encourage each other.

“The health workers wore minimum protective clothing which includes a lab coat, gloves and a face mask only resorting to the full gear after identifying a suspect who needed to be isolated and nursed further,” she says dispelling fears that the full gear was worn at all times when screening travelers.

She observes that whereas some travelers found it a nuisance, they had to undergo thorough health checks. “The health workers at the airport took time to explain the importance of the screening to some of the agitated passengers in languages they understood and some of them calmed down and cooperated,” she says.

After the first round of health checks, the passengers had their documents processed and later ushered to the gated areas awaiting to board their flights where a final assessment was done before boarding the aircraft.

“This is necessary to ensure that while they waited to board, no one developed symptoms like fever. The temperatures are written on their boarding passes and returned to the passengers,’ she notes.

Dr Mgamb says for the treatment and management of Ebola, training and sensitisation of healthcare workers and communities is critical.

Suspected cases should be thoroughly investigated and their contacts identified and followed up strictly. “Early detection of cases can prevent the spread of this disease,” she signs off.