Being A Pediatrician In An Ebola Epidemic

* Abbreviations: ETU — : Ebola treatment EVD — : Ebola virus disease PPE — : personal protective equipmentI had the privilege of serving as a short-term Ebola clinician in Sierra Leone. I went as part of a team with the nongovernmental organization Partners in Health1 in January and February 2015. Sierra Leone is a country of 5.9 million people, with 41.7% u003c15 years old. Sierra Leone has a ratio of 0.022 physicians per 1000 people, or 1 physician for every 45 000 people.2 Pediatric care is provided by general practitioners and community health care workers. There is no pediatric specialty training available for physicians in the country. The most common causes of death for children u003c5 years old in Sierra Leone are pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria.3 Against this background of an insufficiently equipped health care system, the Ebola epidemic hit West Africa, and cases in Sierra Leone peaked at 13 406 cases,4 the most of any country afflicted with Ebola.I trained as a combined internal medicine and pediatrics physician, and while working in the Ebola treatment unit (ETU) I was quickly assigned to the pediatric patients there. I was not the first or the only pediatrician to work in the ETU. I had the pleasure to meet … Address correspondence to Vijay Aswani, MD, PhD, Department of Internal Medicine u0026 Pediatrics, Marshfield Clinic, 1000 N Oak Ave, Marshfield, WI 54449. E-mail: aswani.vijay{at}marshfieldclinic.org