When I lived in Africa, Ebola and Congo Fever were possibly two of our greatest fears…above and beyond both the civil wars of surrounding countries and the civil war within our own. When a nurse died after caring for a patient, in Cape Town, if my memory serves me right, intense medical discussion brought an Ebola plan to every hospital. Value was granted to that one life in a hell-ridden society that was almost immune to the mind-numbing political crime and "muti-killings". You could almost say that people died like flies. Believe me…Ebola is an insidious but cruel thing. This morning, I read a regional document that included instructions for an Ebola patient's 'visitors'. "Visitors?" I repeated to anyone that would listen, "Visitors…are you kidding me? A quarantined Ebola patient won't be having any visitors!". I still remember discussing how to bring an Ebola patient into ICU in 1987, without exposing anybody, and the possibility of 2 allocated nurses remaining on the premises for the whole containment period of care. Today, on another continent, a manager flippantly said, "Things really have changed today". Easy words from someone that hasn't even seen a case of Cholera or been exposed to the diseases of Africa.
As a nurse, I feel that we should look at what the South African (South Africa is a country, if you weren't aware) government is putting in place. In August this year, eleven hospitals were designated to receive Ebola cases for care. A military medical team has been trained in special isolation techniques. An aeromedical evacuation team with a transport isolator and ICU equipment is ready. They are not taking any chances and are not assuming that "it is never going to happen". It is happening. Listen to what is coming from a country that has trialled new drugs twenty years before Australia; listen to what is coming from a country that has been a leader in Aids research. The South Africans are not as stupid as they look. They are experts at working with little for a lot less. Nations could fall into the trap of basing their decisions on their own ethnocentric cultures. Australia's health system is gorgeous. Ebola won't care.
