Sierra Leone: Chasing Ebola in the Slums of Freetown

... MSF epidemiologist Dr. Kieran O’Connor and his outreach team talk to a family that recently lost two members to Ebola. As primary contacts of Ebola patients, the remaining members of the household are at risk of infection themselves. The team asks if anyone is experiencing any symptoms and check for fever using an infrared thermometer....

 “We try to link up new cases to existing chains of transmission,” says Dr. Kieran. “Most of the time now we are able to do that, which is a good sign. We follow each chain carefully to find any contacts who are showing early Ebola symptoms, and we send them to an Ebola management center for further investigation. This reduces the risk of cross-infection. A chain goes dead when no new contacts develop the disease after 21 days of follow-up. Once this happens the incidence of Ebola drops rapidly.”

MSF health promoter Shekhu Jabbie says contact tracing is not as easy as simply asking for the names of family members. “We ask about their occupation, whether they’re farmers, traders or traditional healers. We interview them about their marriage background, their children, the people they live with, the people they share a latrine with.”