Working against complacency: Windsor man completes Ebola aid mission

It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to work in an Ebola treatment centre. Most Canadian Red Cross aid workers try to anticipate what they will see and experience on a day-to-day basis but quickly realize that the experience is not what they thought it would be. Nikola Latinovic, an aid worker from Windsor, Ontario, found this to be the case during his four-week mission in Kono, Sierra Leone.

Outside the Kono Ebola treatment centre

Nikola's main objective as an infection protection and control delegate was to ensure that local and international staff followed safety protocols to safe guard against transmission of the Ebola virus. One of the challenges that he had to address at the treatment centre was local staff wearing excessive amounts of personal protective equipment. “Some workers would put on four pairs of rubber gloves even though protocol call for two pairs. They felt like it would give them extra protection but I had to explain that the extra layers were unnecessary and could complicate their range of motion and make detail oriented work difficult,” Nikola said.

Another challenge he experienced was seeing patients, particularly children, facing other illnesses, such as malaria. “Anyone with Ebola-like symptoms was admitted to the treatment centre. Fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea can be symptoms of many different illnesses and for some of the children we saw, they were symptoms of malaria. Some of them were so sick that they died shortly after coming to the centre. That was hard to see, especially as a father,” Nikola explained.The entire experience was not awash in loss though; Nikola did witness two young girls, eight and 10 years old, recover from Ebola and leave the treatment centre. “That was a really happy day for everyone at the centre. After they left everyone hoped we would remain at zero cases but a few days later another young man came in and tested positive. He came to the centre near the end of my mission and I got to know him a little bit. I would talk to him from across the fence and I saw his health improve. He seemed to be on the road to recovery before I left,” he said.
 

Nikola in full personal protection equipment at the Kono Ebola treatment centre.

Nikola shares more in this short video filmed in Sierra Leone:



Thousands have lost their lives to Ebola and Nikola knows that his job is one of many that are helping affected countries begin to recover. “Following the protocols for personal protective equipment is so important. Healthcare workers interact with infected patients every day and they need that barrier to prevent the spread of the virus,” he said.

Having someone like Nikola in West Africa to oversee procedures is critical to ensuring complacency does not set in amongst workers at Ebola treatment centres. With the one year mark of the outbreak upon us, it is more important than ever to aggressively work towards the goal of zero cases.

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