Mayo man’s Ebola plea

Mayo man’s Ebola plea


Dualta Roughneen is working at the epicentre of the Ebola pandemic in West Africa

Anton McNulty

A Mayo man currently managing a response team in the epicentre of the Ebola pandemic in West Africa has warned that more international medical workers are needed there if the virus is not to become widespread across the globe.
Kiltimagh native Dualta Roughneen is currently based in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown, where he is working for aid group Plan Ireland.
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are the three countries in which most of Ebola deaths have been concentrated.
With several Ebola cases now also confirmed in the  USA,  Spain and in many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the World Health Organisation has declared the matter a public health emergency.
Mr Roughneen has been in the country for over three weeks and says that despite international medical efforts, Ebola is still very widespread and a further response is needed.
“There is a lot of movement and the world is reacting but we are still not catching up. There is still a number of months before we will be able to turn the tide,” he told The Mayo News.
“People underestimated how bad it would get and everyone was caught on the hop. Everyone hoped the outbreak would be localised and it would run its course but that did not happen. They completely underestimated how serious it would be,” he said of the Ebola outbreak, which has so far killed thousands of people, mainly in the three west African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Milestone
The Ebola case count recently crossed the 10,000 mark, according to World Health Organisation figures. Since most authorities recognise that case counts underestimate the number of true infections that have occurred, it is likely that such a figure was passed some time ago.
“We need more [international medical workers] because the reality is the health systems in the three countries worst affected are already limited and have already been hit in a big way. If we are to contain the virus and treat the patients, more international people and help is needed. But it is a difficult thing for me to say to someone that they should be out here. It is a very difficult decision to make,” he admitted.
Fears across the western world of the Ebola outbreak spreading have caused panic and led to strict screening and quarantine measures being introduced by some countries in the developed world. Three US states are now placing people entering the country from the Ebola hit region in quarantine for 21 days.
With confirmed cases in mainland Europe and in the USA, there is a real fear of a global spread of the killer virus, but Dualta Roughneen believes that countries, including Ireland, have the medical facilities to cope with isolated cases. The real fear he says, is if the virus becomes widespread in other countries in Africa, further increasing the chances of it spreading through travel.

Precautions
Currently office-based in Sierra Leone and not ‘on the frontline’, Mr Roughneen believes he is relatively safe from infection, but still takes precautions such as avoiding public places and not shaking hands with others. He also washes his hands with chlorine.
Plan Ireland have had a presence in Sierra Leone for the last 30 years, providing educational programmes, but since the Ebola outbreak schools have been closed and Mr Roughneen is currently co-ordinating their emergency response programme.
“We have changed direction in the last number of months and we have turned towards an Ebola response and I am leading that team. Since the outbreak all the schools are closed.
So far we have been very lucky, none of our staff have been infected with Ebola. The work they are doing brings risks and our staff need to be vigilant. We are asking our staff to do work they have not signed up to do and there is no obligation on them, so you have to respect what they do.”
Dualta Roughneen remains in regular contact with his parents in Mayo and plans to return to Ireland in the next fortnight or three weeks. When he arrives back, he says he will have to restrict his movements for 21 days, although he doesn’t intend to be in complete isolation.