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As the latest of the six British-built Ebola treatment centres in west Africa admitted its first three patients this weekend, some of the volunteer NHS staff working there over Christmas said they felt insulted by a draconian ramping up of the protocols they have been told they will have to follow when they return to the UK.
Public Health England (PHE) has told the NHS personnel it is increasing restrictions on their movements when they return from the frontline of Ebola-infection, banning them from travelling on public transport for longer than an hour and increasing from two to three the number of weeks before they can return to work.
For Dr John Wright, a clinical epidemiologist from Bradford working at the clinic at Moyamba, Sierra Leone, which opened on Friday, it was a slap in the face for him and his colleagues.
“It’s a return to the ecology of fear that they insisted they were going to steer clear of,” he said. “No travel, no shared accommodation, no clinical work, a fever parole officer to report to daily. Why not issue us with plague masks and bells?
“It’s an insult to our intelligence and common sense and is exactly that loss of reason and scientific understanding that they promised they wouldn’t lose when we left. It’s hardly the brass bands and hanging out of the bunting for people coming back. PHE say they’re following the practice of the NGOs. Many of them don’t know what they’re doing. PHE should be leading the way with science.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/21/nhs-ebola-staff-insulted-by-uk-travel-ban
Public Health England (PHE) has told the NHS personnel it is increasing restrictions on their movements when they return from the frontline of Ebola-infection, banning them from travelling on public transport for longer than an hour and increasing from two to three the number of weeks before they can return to work.
For Dr John Wright, a clinical epidemiologist from Bradford working at the clinic at Moyamba, Sierra Leone, which opened on Friday, it was a slap in the face for him and his colleagues.
“It’s a return to the ecology of fear that they insisted they were going to steer clear of,” he said. “No travel, no shared accommodation, no clinical work, a fever parole officer to report to daily. Why not issue us with plague masks and bells?
“It’s an insult to our intelligence and common sense and is exactly that loss of reason and scientific understanding that they promised they wouldn’t lose when we left. It’s hardly the brass bands and hanging out of the bunting for people coming back. PHE say they’re following the practice of the NGOs. Many of them don’t know what they’re doing. PHE should be leading the way with science.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/21/nhs-ebola-staff-insulted-by-uk-travel-ban