Iowa Doctor Returns From Ebola-impacted Sierra Leone

DES MOINES — The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is being fed by fear, mistrust, stigma and information deficiencies among people dealing with inadequate treatment centers and poor health care infrastructure, according to an Iowa epidemiologist who recently returned from Sierra Leone.Dr. Samir Koirala, an epidemiologist working with the Iowa Department of Public Health who spent 25 days in west Africa, told reporters Wednesday he encountered a lack of trust between health care providers and their communities, reluctance among doctors and nurses to treat patients out of concern they could become infected and fear among people to go to hospitals to seek medical care for any illness that might lead to a positive test for the deadly Ebola virus.“One of the many challenges in West Africa is a lack of patient tracing,” said Koirala, whose work centered on improving the medical data surveillance system in one of the three most-affected districts in Sierra Leona.“Far too many times a patient is tested in one district, but transferred to another district for treatment if the test is positive,” he said.