An Assistant Professor with UNBC is doing his part to help the global community in the fight against the Ebola virus.
Dr. Greg Thomas-Reilly, a specialist in nursing, is leaving Tuesday for Liberia, the country hardest hit by the virus.
“Where I will be working as part of a mission to train national healthcare staff in a very rural, under-serviced part of the country,” he says.
Going from a country without the infection to one under siege by it, he says he will be working in a very “tightly controlled environment”.
“In terms of the work that I’m going to be doing, it’s going to be a lot of engaging with national Liberian healthcare staff, infection prevention control training, etcetera,” he explains. “I’ll also be a part of a rapid-response team, if any international healthcare staff in that area of the country become infected.”
With years of training in the field, Thomas-Reilly says he couldn’t “sit on the sidelines” while the infection spread.
He says he’s fascinated by infections diseases, but also has a good dose of fear, which he says is necessary.
“Ebola is definitely not one of the most infections diseases,” he says. “Certainly , things like mumps, and influenza, etcetera, are far more infectious, but Ebola is very fatal.
“Anyone who goes in there with a cavalier attitude of ‘I’m going to go and save Liberia, save the world,’ what have you, with guns-a-blazing, is setting themselves up for disaster and possibly exposing their fellow team members to some risk, as well,” he says.
“You have to go in with a very measured attitude, you have to be very methodical in the work that you do, you have to have respect for the pathogen that you’re working with,” he explains.
Thomas-Reilly has spent his professional career in the field of communicable diseases, having worked in Africa to help fight the spread of AIDS.
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