When Caregivers Become Patients: Frontline Vulnerability in the Bundibugyo Outbreak Response
The ongoing Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has resulted in a high number of infections and deaths among healthcare workers in the DRC and Uganda. This highlights the extreme risks faced by frontline medical staff during viral outbreaks.
Why it matters
The loss of healthcare workers creates a compounding crisis, as the loss of caregivers reduces the capacity to treat the broader population during an epidemic.
During the Ebola outbreak in 2014, there was an international response to support the clinical care of patients in Africa. Domestically, as infection preventionists (IPs), we were trained on how to safely don and doff PPE, how to transport and dispose of biohazardous materials, and which equipment we could use should a suspected Ebola patient walk into our facility. We were equally concerned about our ability to care for a possible patient and how to keep our clinical staff safe. We followed the challenges the front-line health care workers were navigating and used their lessons learned to support our planning efforts at home.
Focuses on public health data and the professional challenges of medical staff without political bias.
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