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Doctor Hesitates, Then Returns to Ebola Front Line

| November 18, 2014 Comment

Doctor hesitates, then returns to Ebola front line – When volunteer doctor Juli Switala returned last month to Sierra Leone to treat Ebola victims after taking a break, she said she was shocked to see the obituaries and photographs of colleagues who had died of the disease in her absence, pinned to a board in the treatment center.

Switala is a South African who works for Doctors Without Borders, in Sierra Leone. Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people there and in two other west African countries, Liberia and Guinea. Many were health workers, and cases of American and other foreign medical staff who got the virus generated widespread international attention.

Doctors Without Borders said 24 of their staff have been infected by the disease, with nine surviving. Switala believes the local staffers are the unsung heroes who have carried out desperately needed but dangerous work while risking rejection in their homes and communities. Many are under increased pressure at home to quit their jobs. Some have been left by partners who worried that they might catch Ebola.

European Union officials say thousands more health professionals like Switala are needed to eradicate the epidemic. Switala said her mother struggled to understand her decision to return to Sierra Leone, and says she considered remaining in Johannesburg when she learned that a friend had fallen ill with Ebola.

She says her “gut feeling was ‘Oh no, I don’t know if I want to go back there. That lasted for about a minute and then I thought, ‘Now I have to go back even more because this time it’s personal.'”

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