Fear of Ebola putting doctors at risk

853-Marilize Ackerman, the coordinator of HR and finance for MSF in Guinea, talks at an event held in Braamfontein, Johannesburg last night(sun). 21.09.14

853-Marilize Ackerman, the coordinator of HR and finance for MSF in Guinea, talks at an event held in Braamfontein, Johannesburg last night(sun). 21.09.14

Published Sep 22, 2014

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Johannesburg - If you thought your job was tough, imagine what it must be like having to make life-or-death decisions every day?

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will be giving South Africans a look into the difficult scenarios that the organisation’s medics working in conflicts and crises worldwide have to face.

The organisation will be doing this through an advertising campaign called #ToughDecisions.

The ads give a glimpse of what it is like working as a medic in the frontline of conflict zones in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central African Republic and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

At the campaign launch at The Orbit jazz club in Braamfontein, Joburg, MSF South Africa general director Daniel Berman said they wanted to show South Africans what was really happening in these areas to get them more involved in supporting humanitarian work internationally.

One area that has been particularly challenging has been the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in five West African states.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, MSF has admitted 2 932 patients, of whom 1 747 were confirmed cases of Ebola - 520 have survived the disease.

The challenges treating a disease such as Ebola go further than just isolating and treating patients.

Marilize Ackerman, the co-ordinator of human resources and finance for MSF in Guinea, said it was not easy arriving at a place to find a slab of concrete and nothing else, and having to set up a treatment centre there.

A more worrying decision they have to make is which villages to go into because many are red zones, where people will not accept medical attention.

Ackerman said that because this was the first outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, many villagers had associated the disease with foreign doctors, whom they believe were bringing the disease.

At the treatment centre, they have a map on which villages are marked in red or green, indicating if they are welcome there or not.

She said every day they had to make a decision about whether to risk their lives and go into unwelcoming villages to help patients and to try to educate them about Ebola.

“We have found the best education comes from those who have survived. Sometimes they return home and tell their communities they have recovered. Then those villages open up,” Ackerman explained.

She shared her experiences just a few days after news emerged that a team of journalists and healthworkers were killed while trying to spread awareness on Ebola in a village in the remote forests of south-eastern Guinea.

The villagers attacked the group, three of whom were radio journalists and a preacher, in the belief that foreigners were responsible for spreading the disease.

They were attacked with stones, machetes and knives. Eight bodies were found in the village latrine.

The Washington Post said it was the most horrific Ebola-related violence to date, but it was not the first act of aggression. The paper said that as the death toll increased, so had the violence.

Frightened locals blamed doctors for perpetuating the virus. It also reported that some doctors and nurses had stopped wearing uniforms because they were scared of provoking attacks in the street.

MSF said that the Ebola outbreak continued to grow.

The organisation is operating in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone in response to the outbreak.

Created by TBWA/Hunt-Lascaris, the #ToughDecisions TV adverts will be aired on SABC2, SABC3 and DStv, with a social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter.

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The Star

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