Date/Time
Date(s) - 27/04/2015
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
Tararua Tramping Club
Categories No Categories
Nursing patients during the Ebola Pandemic
Ryan McLane, Humanist Society member and Humanist Marriage Celebrant was deployed as a nurse at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) outside of the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown. Working as part of the New Zealand contingent in an Australia-New Zealand staffed facility he offered direct care to Ebola infected patients and managed a Sierra Leonean team of specialists for seven weeks. Ryan will present the history and nature of the pandemic, the role of the New Zealand contribution to the anti-Ebola effort, and the long-term impact the disease may hold for the region, and the world. Since early 2014, the Ebola virus disease has raged in West Africa, the largest such outbreak known. With more than 25,000 cases to date and at least 10,000 deaths this infection has caused panic in countries far from the source of infection. While diseases such as malaria and HIV take many more lives in Africa, Ebola has dominated health reporting from the region for more than a year. The three countries most affected, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, have been recipients of an international aid effort aimed at establishing clinics and containing the spread of Ebola. Having lost many of their domestic cadre of health professionals early in the disease, foreign teams have operated the Ebola treatment centres (ETCs). These centres house suspected and confirmed cases, to offer support to the ill and minimise disease spread through the community.
We meet from 7.30 pm until 9.30 pm
All interested people are welcome, Society members and members of the public – bring a friend.
Venue: Tararua Tramping Club, 4 Moncrieff St, off Elizabeth St, off Kent Tce, Wellington