Health experts go to West Africa to track Ebola.

By DIANE WILLIAMS

Four dedicated scientists from the city Dept. of Health and Mental Hygiene answered the call for volunteers to track the widespread Ebola outbreak in three West African nations–Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

“Ebola is only a plane ride away,” said Dr. Aurora Amoah, a Research Scientist III, who last spring with fellow Local 375 member Dr. Jo Anne Bennett, a Research Scientist IV, and Local 768 Public Health Advisor Gardy Deshommes offered advanced technical assistance to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emergency Operations Center.

The three DC 37 volunteers and a Dept. of Health manager traveled 4,500 miles from New York City to Conarky, Guinea, on a three-month health mission to track the spread of Ebola during the most severe outbreak to date.

They worked with a coalition of international health organizations, including the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, the United Nations, and the Red Cross. As epidemiologists, their mission was to find the source of the deadly virus, and how it spread. The scientists were not engaged in direct care of persons diagnosed with Ebola or being monitored for potential Ebola exposure.