EBOLA:Do not touch me; Life inside the Ebola outbreak.


Dr. Jose Rovira with the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in the town of Pendembu, Sierra Leone.
Courtesy Tommy Trenchard
Editor's note: These stories were gathered from writings submitted to CNN and interviews conducted with people on the ground in West Africa. They have been edited for clarity.

Burying the bodies

Daniel James, Red Cross Society volunteer
Kailahun, Sierra Leone
The first body we had to bury was at a village called Gbanyawalu. When the corpse was turned over on his back for swabbing, it took in a breath — like somebody who has suffered from suffocation and was gasping for air. We nearly ran out. Even the World Health Organization worker was not expecting such a reaction from a corpse that was there three days before our arrival.
Daniel James, burial leader
On July 10, I was called into the office of Constant Kargbo, under-secretary general of Disease Management Programmes and Operations for Sierra Leone's Red Cross Society. He said to me: "My man, I want to send you to Kailahun for dead body management. Will you go?" I took about five minutes to think on it.
I joined the Red Cross when I was a child to work for humanity and to alleviate the suffering of the most vulnerable. I said, "I am from Kailahun. I must go to save my people."
When I reached Kailahun, it was like a war-torn country. My family was not happy; they were all scared and worrying. They called asking me to go back. My sister shed tears over the phone, but I reassured her.
On average, we bury six bodies a day. The hardest part of the job is to take blood samples from the corpses.
My guys are professionals now. Our personal protective equipment and a chlorine solution are our protection; they are our medication and they are our doctors. We maintain the ABC Rule: Avoid Body Contact.
My last word of caution to them whenever we come from the field is: "Gentlemen, you have done safe work and I am confident you are safe in this moment. When you go home, be mindful of your personal activities until we meet again tomorrow."
With this, no one has ever complained of even a simple headache. Thank God.
Workers wearing personal protective equipment stand inside the contaminated area at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. The hospital is run by Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as Doctors without Borders.
Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

Who lives and who dies?

Pierre Trbovic, Medecins Sans Frontieres
ELWA-3 Ebola Treatment Center in Monrovia, Liberia
Soon after arriving in Monrovia, I realized that my colleagues were overwhelmed by the scale of the Ebola outbreak. Our treatment centre — the biggest MSF has ever run — was full, and Stefan, our field coordinator, was standing at the gate turning people away. On an MSF mission, you have to be flexible. This wasn't a job that we had planned for anyone to do, but somebody had to do it — and so I put myself forward.
Pierre Trbovic, hospital gatekeeper
The first person I had to turn away was a father who had brought his sick daughter in the trunk of his car. He pleaded with me to take his teenage daughter, saying that whilst he knew we couldn't save her life, at least we could save the rest of his family from her.
Other families just pulled up in cars, let the sick person out and then drove off, abandoning them. One mother tried to leave her baby on a chair, hoping that if she did, we would have no choice but to care for the child.
I had to turn away one couple who arrived with their young daughter. Two hours later the girl died in front of our gate, where she remained until the body removal team took her away.
Once I entered the high-risk zone, I understood why we couldn't admit any more patients. There are processes and procedures in an Ebola treatment centre to keep everyone safe, and if people don't have time to follow them, they can start making mistakes.
There was no way of letting more patients in without putting everyone, and all of our work, at risk. But explaining this to people who were pleading for their loved ones to be admitted, and assuring them that we were expanding the centre as fast as we could, was almost impossible.
In Monrovia, we estimate that there needs to be more than 1,000 beds to treat every Ebola patient. There are currently just 240. Until that gap is closed, the misery of turning people away at our gates will continue.
Pierre’s story was first published by The Guardian
A man suspected of having Ebola lies near a busy street in Monrovia, Liberia, as a child looks on.
Abbas Dulleh/AP

So much is missing

Lt. Rebecca Levine, U.S. Public Health Service
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Our flight to Sierra Leone was almost completely empty.
When we got to the hotel, we met in the lobby with two officers. I wanted to go up and give them a hug, but nobody makes direct contact here. You can't shake hands, and you certainly can't hug. It seems really against human nature and totally the opposite of what you want to do in a crisis.
Lt. Rebecca Levine, contact tracer
It's been pretty emotional just seeing the reality of how this is affecting daily life. The price of everything has skyrocketed, and people can't afford to feed their families. All the schools are closed, so kids are not learning.
Several of the local health care workers had lunch with me today. They offered to share with me this amazingly gorgeous plate of food, and I couldn't eat it. All of us are so afraid of eating anything out of the normal. Nobody wants to get sick with gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea — anything that you might attribute to an upset stomach or food poisoning are also the symptoms of Ebola.
You just have to be careful of everything all the time. It's wearing on me in a way that I didn't really expect. It's not just the absence of human contact but also the fear of it. Somebody brushes by you in a room and you think, "Where have they been? What do they have?"
My real fear is that this is just the tip of the iceberg. As the cases continue to mount, another day where contact tracing isn't happening goes on.
The more I learn about the contact-tracing system, the more I realize how much there is to do and how much is missing. The person who is supposed to be in charge of monitoring the contact-tracing supervisors doesn't even have a computer. It feels like a really daunting challenge to overcome, especially in a district of 3 million people where it's really easy for people to hide.
I saw signs outside of a church that were basically saying Ebola is here because of evil spirits — as a curse that people just need to pray hard enough to make go away. We know that it's going to take more than prayers.
Workers in Monrovia, Liberia, place the body of a man suspected to have died of Ebola hemorrhagic fever inside a plastic body bag for burial.
Abbas Dulleh/AP

'We can defeat this'

Tim Callaghan, U.S. Agency for International Development
Monrovia, Liberia
I got here a little over six weeks ago to coordinate the USAID response to Ebola in Monrovia. I was the director in Haiti after the earthquake in 2010, and was in the Republic of Georgia after the fighting with Russia in 2008.
Here it is painful for me. Unlike the Haitian earthquake — where you knew how to distribute food and provide plastic sheeting — in Liberia we really need to change mindsets so people don't put themselves at risk.
Tim Callaghan, disaster coordinator (right)
We've pulled people from all over the U.S. government to come to West Africa. There's someone from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from the Department of Defense, from Health and Human Services. We have a firefighter from Los Angeles County. We're all trying to improve incident command and response.
Much of our work involves education about what Ebola is and isn't, helping infection control practices, setting up labs and clinics. Health care facilities here were challenged even before Ebola.
We have some momentum. I was recently in Dolotown to see the health facility we are funding. We want to put a mobile lab there to speed up testing. It is a four-hour ride on terrible roads to the nearest lab. It takes days to determine if someone is sick.
The town was quarantined early on; it's out of quarantine now. The people there were amazing.
I saw this young man with a megaphone advising people what Ebola is, urging his community to "stop it together." These young people stopped our car driving in and told us to get out, to wait in line for them to check our temperature. There was no exception. They wrote it down with the date and pinned it to my jacket. I plan to keep that for a long time.
Those who do have high temperatures were isolated and tested. While they wait, community members brought food and water. Thankfully, none had Ebola.
Seeing people in the community work together to solve these problems is tremendous.
The big thing here is to be very disciplined. It's difficult. We need to educate families that they can't touch a dead person. When someone dies you want to hug them or hold them. You can't.
I did Peace Corps before USAID. My mother, who lives in Brooklyn, cried for a week when I told her I was leaving my job on Wall Street to do that. But my family knows this is important. We all must battle this together. We can defeat this, but we are still far behind.
Ebola can spread even after a person infected with the virus dies. Workers must be careful not to come in contact with any bodily fluids, such as blood or sweat.
Abbas Dulleh/AP

Changing tactics

Dan Ward, Medical Teams International
Liberia
I grew up in Africa; my parents brought me to Tanzania when I was 6 months old. Now I'm a development program specialist based in Uganda, brought into Liberia to do logistics during the Ebola outbreak.
Needs keep changing, and we need to keep changing tactics.
We have several clinics throughout Monrovia. One day, we were going down the street from clinic to clinic, doing an assessment to see what the needs are. The first clinic was open. There were 20 people in the outpatient area, but the staff was not taking temperatures. You could have someone seeking treatment for Ebola, but they wouldn't know. That's how it's spreading. We needed to get education to health workers there.
Dan Ward, medical logistics
The second clinic was closed. They had an Ebola patient who died. All the workers had to be quarantined for 21 days.
The third was a private clinic. The operator closed it because he didn't have proper equipment. We're trying to get him emergency supplies.
Supplies are coming into the country, but this is a bureaucratic culture, and we have to spend a lot more time than usual on tedious paperwork. There need to be shortcuts. But we are not going to be able to build enough treatment units even with President Obama ramping up U.S. response. The physical limitations are serious and the messaging is confusing still.
We are saying don't touch people with Ebola; that's not realistic anymore. There's no place to take loved ones. When you have a family member who is sick, we have to say, "Here is how you can help while maintaining the dignity of self and family."
Greeting someone here is usually an event, with a vigorous handshake. Now no one touches. It's lost some of its essence. When you walk down the sidewalk you're careful not to touch anyone accidentally. The staff now has vehicles; they don't use public transport or taxis. We wash our hands constantly with bleach.
I'm struck by the compassion and courage of the people here. Health care workers don't have sufficient supplies and yet they still provide services. Our whole objective is to help keep them alive.
My family worries, but I try to be careful, and I feel this is what I should be doing.
CNN.

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Sandhurst's sheikhs: Why do so many Gulf royals receive military training in the UK? A parade outside the building at Sandhurst Continue reading the main story In today's Magazine The death list that names 5,000 victims Is this woman an apostate? Voices from a WW1 prison camp The Swiss selfie scandal Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Continue reading the main story Find out more Matthew Teller presents Sandhurst and the Sheikhs, a Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4, on Wednesday 27 August 2014 at 11:00 BST It will be available on iPlayer shortly after broadcast Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh Saad, Emir of Kuwait, and Sheikh Hamad, Emir of Qatar. Sandhurst's links have continued from the time when Britain was the major colonial power in the Gulf. "One thing the British were excellent at was consolidating their rule through spectacle," says Habiba Hamid, former foreign policy strategist to the rulers of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. "Pomp, ceremony, displays of military might, shock and awe - they all originate from the British military relationship." Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, King Abdullah, Sultan Qaboos Sandhurst alumni: King Hamad of Bahrain, King Abdullah of Jordan and Sultan Qaboos of Oman It's a place where future leaders get to know each other, says Michael Stephens, deputy director of the Royal United Services Institute, Qatar. And Sandhurst gives the UK influence in the Gulf. "The [UK] gets the kind of attention from Gulf policy elites that countries of our size, like France and others, don't get. It gives us the ability to punch above our weight. "You have people who've spent time in Britain, they have… connections to their mates, their teachers. Familiarity in politics is very beneficial in the Gulf context." "For British people who are drifting around the world, as I did as a soldier," says Brigadier Peter Sincock, former defence attache to Saudi Arabia, "you find people who were at Sandhurst and you have an immediate rapport. I think that's very helpful, for example, in the field of military sales." The Emir of Dubai Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum with his son after his Passing Out Parade at Sandhurst in 2006 Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai, with his son in uniform at Sandhurst in 2006 Her Majesty The Queen's Representative His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, The Emir of Qatar inspects soldiers during the 144th Sovereign's Parade held at The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on April 8, 2004 in Camberley, England. Some 470 Officer cadets took part of which 219 were commissioned into the British Army Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar until 2013, inspects soldiers at Sandhurst in 2004 Emotion doesn't always deliver. In 2013, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, the UAE decided against buying the UK's Typhoon fighter jets. But elsewhere fellow feeling is paying dividends. "The Gulf monarchies have become important sources of capital," says Jane Kinninmont, deputy head of the Middle East/North Africa programme at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House. "So you see the tallest building in London being financed by the Qataris, you see UK infrastructure and oilfield development being financed by the UAE. There's a desire - it can even seem like a desperation - to keep them onside for trade reasons." British policy in the Gulf is primarily "mercantile", says Dr Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, of the Baker Institute in Houston, Texas. Concerns over human rights and reform are secondary. The Shard at dusk The Shard was funded by Qatari investors In 2012 Sandhurst accepted a £15m donation from the UAE for a new accommodation block, named the Zayed Building after that country's founding ruler. In March 2013, Sandhurst's Mons Hall - a sports centre - was reopened as the King Hamad Hall, following a £3m donation from the monarch of Bahrain, who was educated at one of Sandhurst's affiliated colleges. The renaming proved controversial, partly because of the perceived slight towards the 1,600 British casualties at the Battle of Mons in August 1914 - and partly because of how Hamad and his government have dealt with political protest in Bahrain over the last three years. A critic might note that the third term of Sandhurst's Officer Commissioning Course covers counter-insurgency techniques and ways to manage public disorder. Since tension between Bahrain's majority Shia population and minority Sunni ruling elite boiled over in 2011, more than 80 civilians have died at the hands of the security forces, according to opposition estimates, though the government disputes the figures. Thirteen police officers have also lost their lives in the clashes. "The king has always felt that Sandhurst was a great place," says Sincock, chairman of the Bahrain Society, which promotes friendship between the UK and Bahrain. "Something like 20 of his immediate family have been there as cadets. He didn't really understand why there was such an outcry." David Cameron and King Hamad David Cameron meeting King Hamad in 2012... A protester is held back by police ... while protesters nearby opposed the Bahrain ruler's human rights record Crispin Black, a Sandhurst graduate and former instructor, says the academy should not have taken the money. "Everywhere you look there's a memorial to something, a building or a plaque that serves as a touchstone that takes you right to the heart of British military history. Calling this hall 'King Hamad Hall' ain't gonna do that." Sandhurst gave a written response to the criticism. "All donations to Sandhurst are in compliance with the UK's domestic and international legal obligations and our values as a nation. Over the years donations like this have saved the UK taxpayer a considerable amount of money." But what happens when Sandhurst's friends become enemies? In 2001, then-prime minister Tony Blair visited Damascus, marking a warming of relations between the UK and Syria. Shortly after, in 2003, Sandhurst was training officers from the Syrian armed forces. Now, of course, Syria is an international pariah. Journalist Michael Cockerell has written about Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi's time at the Army School of Education in Beaconsfield in 1966: "Three years [later], Gaddafi followed a tradition of foreign officers trained by the British Army. He made use of his newfound knowledge to seize political power in his own country." Ahmed Ali Sandhurst-trained Ahmed Ali was a key player in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi That tradition persists. In the 1990s Egyptian colonel Ahmed Ali attended Sandhurst. In 2013 he was one of the key figures in the Egyptian military's removal of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, now rewarded by a post in President Sisi's inner circle of advisers. In the late 1990s there were moves by the British government under Tony Blair to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets. Major-General Arthur Denaro, Middle East adviser to the defence secretary and commandant at Sandhurst in the late 1990s, describes the idea as part of the "ethical foreign policy" advocated by the late Robin Cook, then-foreign secretary. Tony Blair and Robin Cook Tony Blair and Robin Cook at one point planned to end Sandhurst's training of overseas cadets The funeral of King Hussein in 1999 appears to have scuppered the plan. "Coming to that funeral were the heads of state of almost every country in the world - and our prime minister was there, Tony Blair," says Major-General Denaro. "He happened to see me talking to heads of state - the Sultan of Brunei, the Sultan of Oman, the Bahrainis, the Saudis - and he said 'How do you know all these guys?' The answer was because they went to Sandhurst." Today, Sandhurst has reportedly trained more officer cadets from the UAE than from any other country bar the UK. The May 2014 intake included 72 overseas cadets, around 40% of whom were from the Middle East. "In the future," says Maryam al-Khawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, "people will look back at how much Britain messed up in the [Middle East] because they wanted to sell more Typhoon jets to Bahrain, rather than stand behind the values of human rights and democracy." "It's one thing saying we're inculcating benign values, but that's not happening," says Habiba Hamid. Sandhurst is "a relic of the colonial past. They're not [teaching] the civic values we ought to find in democratically elected leaders." line Who else went to Sandhurst? Princes William and Harry, Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Katie Hopkins, Antony Beevor, James Blunt, Josh Lewsey, Devon Harris (From left to right) Princes William and Harry Sir Winston Churchill Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond (but did not complete training) Katie Hopkins, reality TV star Antony Beevor, historian James Blunt, singer-songwriter Josh Lewsey, World Cup-winning England rugby player Devon Harris, member of Jamaica's first bobsleigh team line Sandhurst says that "building international relations through military exchanges and education is a key pillar of the UK's international engagement strategy". Sandhurst may be marvellous for the UK, a country where the army is subservient to government, but it is also delivering militarily-trained officers to Middle Eastern monarchies where, often, armies seem to exist to defend not the nation but the ruling family.

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Generations of foreign royals - particularly from the Middle East - have learned to be military leaders at the UK's Sandhurst officer training academy. But is that still a good idea, asks Matthew Teller. Since 1812, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, on the Surrey/Berkshire border, has been where the British Army trains its officers. It has a gruelling 44-week course testing the physical and intellectual skills of officer cadets and imbuing them with the values of the British Army. Alongside would-be British officers, Sandhurst has a tradition of drawing cadets from overseas. Many of the elite families of the Middle East have sent their sons and daughters. Perhaps the most notable was King Hussein of Jordan. Four reigning Arab monarchs are graduates of Sandhurst and its affiliated colleges - King Abdullah of Jordan, King Hamad of Bahrain, Sheikh Tamim, Emir of Qatar, and Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Past monarchs include Sheikh S...
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