Summary: Mohammed Sidie Sheriff (or Sidie as he is known) is one of nearly 900 health workers who have been infected during the current outbreak of Ebola. The lab technician at Maculey Street Government Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone completed as many as 100 blood tests on suspected Ebola patients before falling victim to the hemorrhagic fever himself. He believes he contracted the disease while taking a blood sample from a 4-year-old boy, who was infected with Ebola, and later died. He was wearing full protective gear, when he believes a single drop of blood breached his defenses. Within a week, he started to show symptoms. We met him at his work in the lab at the Maculey Street Government Hospital where he told the story of the day he believes he became infected. SOUNDBITE: “I went into the holding center with the necessary precautions. And I went there purposefully to get this child’s blood. So I went to the mother, and I asked her, I said to her, Madame, please help me I have come to take the blood of this child. I called her more than 5 times, becoming quite annoyed…. Not knowing that this young lady… is dead.” Faced with a traumatized child, Sidie told jokes, and tried to calm the little boy down before drawing the sample. SOUNDBITE: “I saw a tiny vein, I went into the vein, but the child was crying, shouting. I managed to get 3ml’s, then, this child drew his hand away from me, so the blood sprayed up.” When he started showing symptoms, Sidie immediately feared the worst. SOUNDBITE: “I called these people, I said, look, please give me the result of that child. Well they said that child died of Ebola. I said, “Oh, I am gone.” I told me wife, I said, “Please call me 117.” So she called 117. Within 20 minutes, 117 came. That was a horrible thing for me, because as soon as 117 was coming to my area, everybody was running helter skelter to see which house this 117 ambulance was going.. When I came out, I saw people lining up. I saw…. (crying) That is the most emotional to me, whenever I think of that, because my wife crying… everybody crying. Sidie lost 3 of his colleagues to Ebola during the outbreak. But, he is now Ebola free, and has resumed the work that he is passionate about. He says the mistakes of the past have helped him and medical workers like him, reduce the spread of Ebola. SOUNDBITE: “The hospital now, the staff, the nurses, the doctors, we who are working in the holding center, have already learned more new things, and this has reduced the death rate of patients being admitted for Ebola.” For more information about The World Bank’s Ebola response, visit worldbank.org/ebola.
