MONROVIA- Hans Rosling is a global health celebrity, a former head of the World Health Division at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm whose riveting lectures him a star of TED talks, and editing of the World economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland did. But since October 20, he held the room 319 of the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, a big yellow building, not far from the Atlantic Ocean. Working alongside the head of Ebola surveillance countries, Luke Bawo, it helps the Department of sense largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded.
Rosling came without any affiliation, who says he allows it to remain independent. "He just walked into the office and introduced himself," said Bawo.
He feels bad for not coming sooner. Ebola arrived in Liberia from Guinea in March and then spread south of Monrovia, where it exploded in August The hospitals were closed and Ebola treatment units were submerged. "I thought the Ebola epidemic could be stopped locally," says Rosling. "I was not smart enough." (He also felt he was too old to work in a processing unit.)
When he saw the epidemic curve go to Sierra Leone and down in Liberia in October, he was skeptical, and he decided to find out first hand what was happening. He canceled his lectures and contacted the Liberian government. "I'm not a virologist, and I am not a clinician, but I have considerable experience investigating messy epidemics in poor regions of Africa," he said.
This a quarter of a century, he faces a threat that seemed even more terrifying than the Ebola virus. in August 1981, Rosling worked as a district doctor in northern Mozambique when he was sitting in front of a line of 30 women and children whose legs became paralyzed during the past month. "I had this big book of neurology, and their disease did not exist in the book," says Rosling. A south African submarine had was spotted in a nearby bay a few weeks earlier. "it was quite possible that it was biological warfare."
When he came home that evening, he told his wife to take their children and lead them to a safer place a few hours. he did not sleep the next 48 hours. "When you face a disease that can be infectious, 98% of your intellectual ability is blocked. You become so afraid, thinking you're going to die, thinking that you can be crippled, thinking about your children." He took 2 weeks before it became clear the affliction was not contagious. (Now konzo it is caused at least partly by toxic compounds in cassava roots.) A group of Italian nuns helped Rosling overcome his fears. "I do not think I could do it without them," he said.
experience has left Rosling with a fresh approach to health crises and a strong sense of what it takes to fight against a disease in one of the poorest regions of the world. Shortly after his arrival in Monrovia, he became convinced that the decline of Liberia is real, largely through behavioral changes that reduce the risk of infection. Liberia now reporting only some 10 new cases per day. that's good news, but it also presents great challenges. While the Ebola virus was the cause of death, security funerals were essential. now that new infections are less frequent, people might take, in principle, traditional funeral practices that include contact with the body, for death is not due to the Ebola virus. But the dissemination of this message could get people to drop their guard with Ebola victims, too, which led to new infections. "Any decision will be many complicated consequences," says Rosling.
Rosling learned that lesson, too, in konzo home. Because he was initially unable to comment on an infectious disease, the Mozambican government has set up a roadblock to stop the spread of the disease. a group of people took a boat along the coast to escape the blockade, and sank. "I stayed and saw the bodies 18 women and children who drowned because of this dam, "he said." it stays with you. Eighteen bodies of people you killed. "
After arriving in Monrovia, Rosling began by doing simple things, like proofreading epidemiological reports of the ministry, he said nobody had time for. It changed a key detail in updates. Instead of listing "0 case" for counties that has not reported figures that could be misleading, he empties he then addressed the problem behind the missing data Some workers. health could not afford to hire their reports because they paid the phone is charging, Rosling has set up a small fund to pay for scratch cards that gave them the airtime [
A recent "Factpods" Hans Rosling on YouTube discussed the spread of Ebola in West Africa.
now it focusing on how to get the number of new cases to zero. That means finding all cases, monitoring contacts of this patient, and isolating those with symptoms-a huge challenge in a country where many villages are hours away, the symptoms of Ebola, as the diarrhea and fever are common, and the fear of the deadly virus causes the contacts to skip town and look for a traditional healer. "We have to make a perfect system meticulously working in a country where such a system can not exist," he said. "This is the greatest intellectual challenge that I took part in my life."
on a whiteboard in his office, Rosling developed a complicated chart to show how the patient information and contacts moves through the system. the data is lost in several stages. Some people die on the way to the hospital; others give different ages or names at different points Rosling's goal is to know how many newly discovered Ebola patients are already on one of the contact lists but until now it has had.. hard even to know what county every patient originated.
further on the front lines welcome with Rosling. Kevin de Cock, head of the US Centres for the team the ground in Liberia Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it "an eminent epidemiologist with great African experience calls. He brings a strong technical and intellectual contribution. "Bawo said he admires the commitment of Rosling, but worries that he himself overuse. "He is welcome to stay, but I make my case it takes a day off a week," said Bawo. "Every Sunday, I do not call, he does not ask me, and I do not want he send me an email. "
Rosling says he is tired of Africa's representation as a continent incompetence, superstition and rampant corruption. "I'm amazed how people are that I work here, how dedicated, severity," he said. When The New York Times reported that the infighting of the government hampered the Ebola response Rosling tweeted: "Don McNeil distorts Ebola response from Liberia to win the MOST BAD aBOUT ARTICLE Ebola AWARD." His self-assurance and impatience with opinions he disagrees with may grate on the other, "I find it quite irritating. "said a Western colleague." most of the time, as it turns out to be right about most things. "
Rosling is critical of the Western response to the crisis. Whereas experts from elsewhere in Africa came as colleagues and stayed for long periods of time, for example, organizations such as CDC replace their staff every few weeks, which hampers continuity Rosling said. (CDC is like Cuba, Rosling said: "amazing people, bad system.") the US military will not transport patients or even blood samples in their helicopters, he added. " Welcome to the continent less superstition "
Rosling finally wrote his doctoral thesis on the epidemic of konzo, helped set up the Swedish chapter of Doctors Without Borders, and became a professor of global health at the Karolinska Institute, where he retired in 2012. talks still garner "obscene costs," said some, $ 0,000 per year, which serves to finance the Gapminder Foundation, a nonprofit, he set up to present development of statistics to a large audience. His talks were seen by millions, 0,000 people follow him on Twitter and has rich and powerful fans. "Mark Zuckerberg called me yesterday," said -it at some point, ask how his money could help against Ebola.
06 talk of Rosling TED debunked myths on the developing world.
in his talks, which have stunning graphics, Rosling is keen to stress that the opinion of most people of the world will not. He often asked how many children receive vaccines-20 standard childhood%, 50% or 80%? Most people answer 20% but is 80%. "The problem is that the education systems in North America and Europe and the media are not transmitted a view based on the facts of the world."
Similarly, many people lump all of Turkey in Somalia as well as developing countries, blurring the differences between middle-income countries and those dominated by extreme poverty. He likes to say that 1.5 billion people have a bulb and a washing machine, 4 billion have only the bulb, and about 1.5 billion have neither. The people of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone fall mostly into the latter category, he said. "And that is one reason that we can have a huge epidemic of Ebola here."
Eradicate extreme poverty should be a top priority, said Rosling, who was critical of programs that focus on a single disease, such as the initiative of several billion dollars to eradicate polio. This put him at odds with Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization (WHO), who heads the campaign. Now Aylward is also responsible for the Ebola response from WHO, but in this case, there is no disagreement: "Ebola is different," Rosling said, adding that Aylward gave him important information. Rosling Aylward praised as a "value added."
Although it is not in contact with Ebola patients, Rosling was a time when the fear of infectious disease has returned. One night in his hotel Monrovia he developed diarrhea. he skipped dinner and locked in his room. "I had to plan. Should I tell my family? Should I not? "He said. he decided to take his temperature every 2 hours and monitor itself for additional symptoms. "But I finish my report before going to bed." It felt good the next morning, and he does not expect to return to Sweden soon. "I canceled Christmas with the family," he said. "But I hope to be home for Christmas Eve the summer solstice."
* Ebola files: Given the current Ebola epidemic, unprecedented in terms of the number of people killed and the rapid geographic spread, Science and science Translational Medicine made a collection of research articles and news on the viral disease available for researchers and the general public.
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