WASHINGTON, DC As head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID ), Anthony Fauci brandished a research budget of $ 4.4 billion and has a punishing schedule. But the last two weeks, Fauci, 74, was booked 2 hours most days to put on a protective plastic suit and help treat a US health care worker who was infected with Ebola virus in Sierra Leone.
"I now have a much deeper respect a lot because the severity of the disease in some patients," said Fauci, who spoke about his experiences during a meeting yesterday Filovirus. "Even if you have optimum facilities for replenishment of fluids and things like that, the disease itself is really devastating."
A doctor who led the NIAID for 30 years, Fauci has treated many patients at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) -whose NIAID is a party in Bethesda, Maryland. "I think we get a unique glimpse of the disease when you actually physically interact with patients," he said. In the case of Ebola, Fauci said he also wanted to show his staff that he would not ask them to do anything he did not want to be; Moreover, "it is very exciting and rewarding to participate in saving someone's life," he said. Fauci also helped treat Dallas nurse Nina Pham, who was hospitalized at the Clinical Center for 8 days in October and visited President Barack Obama after recovering.
the current patient, which happened on March 13 and has not been identified, is much sicker than ever Pham was then at NIH, Fauci said. "I think this has been a patient as sick as you can get," says Fauci. (. NIH list of the patient's condition as "critical" on March 16, but updated yesterday "serious")
One thing Fauci says he has already learned: Ebola disease much more complex than previously thought. "This is an incredible disease. He probably has several phenotypes," he said. Patient data to be published in the coming months will show that "there is a spectrum of this disease," said Fauci, who declined to elaborate.
Fauci says he tries to fit in a 2-hour shift in the segregation unit every day, usually mid afternoon or late, when it is less busy . It is part of a team that includes a main infectious disease specialist, a senior specialist intensive care, respiratory therapist, four nurses and two "WATSAN," people who help others Don and Doff their costumes safely. (WatSan is short for water and sanitation.) "The first day we did not leave, the team was essentially there all night."
* Ebola files: science and Science Translational Medicine made a collection of research articles and news about the Ebola virus and the current epidemic available for researchers and the general public
* Clarification, 27 March , 4:24 p.m. :. WATSAN spelling has been corrected and a note on the origins of the term was added.
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