He has acquired his visa, received his yellow fever vaccine and taken his malaria medicine. Ebola survivor Richard Sacra, MD, is ready to return to Monrovia, Liberia, where he will spend three and a half weeks at the hospital where he contracted the virus in August while treating patients.
Dr. Sacra, assistant professor of family medicine & community health, said he is fully recovered and cleared by doctors and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to return to Liberia and the ELWA Hospital where he has worked on and off since 1995 as part of SIM, an international Christian mission group.
“I feel privileged that I’ll be able to join a team of real servants in the next few days, men and women who are taking a significant risk to care for patients with the love and compassion of Jesus every single day,” Sacra said, during a press conference held Monday morning at UMass Medical School.
UMass Medical School is playing a key role in helping Liberia recover from the Ebola outbreak. With a $7.5 million grant from Paul G. Allen’s #TackleEbola initiative, UMMS is leading a consortium of academic partners in re-opening 25 Liberian hospitals, as well as recruiting health care workers to staff Ebola treatment units and providing laboratory and transfusion support.
A shipment of $1.7 million in personal protective equipment for health care workers was recently flown to Monrovia.
Sacra stressed that although the number of Ebola cases in West Africa is decreasing and there are sufficient beds available in Ebola treatment units to handle patients, the average fatality rate of those diagnosed with Ebola is at 60 percent in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Health care workers have also been hard hit, with 370 cases of Ebola in health care workers, 178 of which were fatal.
“We may be tempted to become complacent as the number of cases starts to decline in the coming months. But we must not rest until there are zero cases of Ebola, and we must not rest until the health system in West Africa is strong enough to contain the new outbreak, whether it be Ebola or some other threat,” Sacra said.
Visit www.umassmed.edu/ebola/ to learn how to contribute to the UMass Medical School Ebola Relief effort.
Related links on UMassMedNow:
UMMS Ebola Relief effort launched with $7.5M Paul G. Allen Family Foundation grant
Ebola free, Rick Sacra continues call for prayers, support for his ‘adopted country’
UMass Medical School partners to send Ebola relief to Liberia
UMMS installing modern technology at Liberia’s only med school
Gilroy teaches anatomy in Liberia: Working in brand new lab at the A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine
UMMS faculty form strong bonds with Liberia
Library projects lending order to chaos in Liberia
Medical School team rebuilding health care in Liberia
