Giving Compass' Take:

• After an Ebola Treatment Center suffered a rebel attack, many Ebola health workers fled in fear of their safety. Due to staffing shortages, other Ebola health workers from Doctors Without Borders are heading to work at the treatment center. 

• What else can MSF do to address safety and security concerns of its staff during this time? 

• Understand more about the Ebola outbreak in the DRC. 

I was in the process of packing my bags to go when my medical team leader pulled myself and the two other nurses aside. I think we were all expecting instructions on which tasks to work on while waiting to return to our project – but I had to stop my jaw from dropping at what came next.

She told us that after the fatal attacks south of us in Biakato, large numbers of medical personnel fled. The Ebola treatment centre (ETC) supported by MSF there was experiencing severe staffing shortages.

In an ETC, staffing shortages put patients, staff and the community at risk – people do not simply stop getting sick when conflict arises. The team there was making an exceptional request for medical staff in neighbouring MSF projects to help support them until replacements could be found or their staff returned.

This was not the conversation I was expecting. I had no question about whether I wanted to go or not. I knew immediately that I did. I just wasn’t sure I was willing to take the risk.

However, after discussions with the community, our team was reassured that MSF had not been targeted and there was no reason to have concerns about future attacks from the rebel group. Ultimately, I accepted and 10 hours later myself and three local nurses – John, Ezekias, and Jean* – were en route to Biakato.

Read the full article about Ebola patients by Courtney Bercan at Doctors Without Borders.