Dweh Initial Transcript

Dweh Initial Transcript

I had seen pictures--videos of Ebola in Uganda. I had been thinking. First of all, we had been having cases that looked like Ebola in our country. If you look at Bong County, we are in the central region. In years back, this Phebe Hospital was like a referral center for all hospitals in the central region and the eastern region. Lassa fever is an endemic disease and it's also a viral hemorrhagic disease. So Ebola brought the [unclear] to Lassa fever. It was something that could make you afraid, especially once I started to read the history of what Ebola did in other countries. I heard this over the media, BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation], that Ebola was in Sierra Leone. Ebola was in Guinea. I started to follow the track of how this disease is traveling from Guinea to Sierra Leone. I was afraid. I heard this information very early in the morning when I woke up from bed. I must admit, I was afraid. I felt terrible. I couldn't sleep that night. What was in my mind is the surveillance system is paralyzed. The surveillance system is a one-man thing. How are we going to do this when our people have poor habits when it comes to health? Even our health workers. How are we going to fight this battle? That morning I went to work and my boss man, Dr. Arzoaquoi, was the first to tell me, "There's Ebola in Guinea, so come, come, let us look at the history of Ebola." I think I felt a little bit relieved because my chief had notified me also and he's concerned.

We looked at the history of Ebola and I tell you, we carried out mass sensitization. He took to the airways. He went to hospitals. He went to clinics, and we talked to health workers--sensitized health workers, started to prepare even before Ebola could hit Liberia. When we had the first case in Liberia, Lofa County, we had Ebola in Lofa--Bong County is bordering Lofa County. So I knew that Bong County was also in a big problem. So we were waiting. We requested protective equipment. Other organizations came to our aid. The MAP International--Medical Assistance Program--they provided us the first set of protective equipment, the best.