Health officials are using social media, among other channels, to get information to health workers in Lagos — a difficult task because the city has thousands of health facilities, including clinics and small hospitals, Dr. Park said.
Dr. Park has been training health workers in how to protect themselves around potentially infected patients. Everyone wants the white Tyvek suits that have been widely photographed, he said, but he tries to convince them that because the disease is spread only by bodily fluids, the suits are needed only when patients are very ill with symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea.
If used, they must be removed carefully to avoid contact with secretions that may have splashed on the outside. “I say: ‘Imagine that you’re covered with paint or mud. How are you going to take this off without getting any on your skin?’ ” Dr. Park said.
Recruiting health professionals to fight Ebola there has proved challenging. On Wednesday in Lagos, a Nigerian doctor who answered a government call said he was not very worried about the risks. But he declined to give his name because he feared reprisals from the state authorities for talking to the news media, and he said he worried that he would be stigmatized if others learned that he was involved with Ebola. Though the government was offering the equivalent of $185 a day, a substantial sum in Nigeria, only a dozen or so people answered the call that day.
A nurse who did respond said he hoped to work on the outbreak by day and continue his regular job at a private hospital by night. He also requested anonymity, for the same reasons as the doctor. Working at the private hospital was riskier than working on the outbreak, he said.
“Here, you already know the risk you are facing, but back at the hospital, it’s dangerous because you can’t treat every patient as an Ebola risk,” the nurse said. While working on the outbreak, he would at least be given training and kits with protective gear.
But he added, holding a Bible, “It’s God that protects, not the kits.”
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