Doctor condemns 'sensationalist' coverage of Ebola outbreak

"Sensationalist" media reporting of the current Ebola outbreak is fuelling irrational fears about the virus, according to public health specialist Dr Diarmuid O'Donovan, who has recently returned from west Africa. However, the continuing rise in cases demonstrates that strengthening health systems in developing countries is in our common interest, he says.

Dr O'Donovan, senior lecturer in NUI Galway's school of medicine and HSE West director of public health, is to speak at NUIG this evening about his recent work on Ebola in Nigeria.

He volunteered with the World Health Organisation’s global outbreak alert and response network, one of a number of Irish public health and microbiology experts who have done so. He believes Nigeria’s handling of Ebola shows that it can be contained quickly. “If we get a case here, I think the HSE will cope. I genuinely believe that,” he says.

Dr O'Donovan led the response to cryptosporidium contamination of Galway's water supply in 2007 and has served in emergency scenarios previously with the aid agencies Concern and Unicef. However, his two-month stint from mid-August in Nigeria was different to anything he had experienced, he says.

"The Nigerian health service has shocking problems, but it has the infrastructure that Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia lack. Young people involved in communication and social media mobilised and it was really impressive to see that level of commitment. "The work was really full on when it was at its peak – working seven days 7.30am to up to 10pm at night," he recalls.

The virus spread from Lagos to the oil base of Port Harcourt when a person who had been in contact with a Liberian diplomat diagnosed with the illness some 48 hours after taking ill in Lagos airport went underground.

“The fact that it had hit Port Harcourt meant that the threat to the economy was enormous, and so it had to be contained,”he says. “At that point, the co-ordination and leadership was fantastic.

“Basic hygiene is very important, but this is a disease that is hard to get, as you have to touch infected bodily fluids, which is why it is mainly affecting medical staff and people in small isolated communities caring for very sick people or collecting bodies,” he adds.

“People in Nigeria who were treated with fluids very early were more likely to survive, whereas in places like Liberia, there hasn’t been sufficient bed space to ensure that level of early intervention.

“People are still dying in their thousands,” Dr O’Donovan says, “and it has highlighted the reality of that 10-90 gap – in that 90 per cent of the world’s health budget is spent on 10 per cent of the world’s population.

“There is no vaccine for malaria, for instance, and there are still very large numbers of people dying needlessly from diarrhoea and HIV. We do need to be cautious, but fear should not be irrational.”

He notes that this is one of some 20 outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was first identified. “If the resources being put in now by governments through the UN and EU continues, hopefully the cataclysmic projections won’t come to pass.”

Dr O'Donovan will give a free public lecture, Ebola – the Facts, at NUIG's school of nursing and midwifery in Áras Moyola this evening from 7pm.