Ebola: Personal view from the field – Sierra Leone

Experiences of healthcare workers responding to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa vary with the types of facility. Patients suspected of having Ebola virus disease (EVD) must be isolated from each other as well as from the wider community until testing is complete; in Sierra Leone such facilities were called Ebola holding units (EHUs). Once EVD was confirmed, patients were moved to Ebola treatment units (ETUs), where they could be cohorted together safely and treatment efforts focused on EVD itself. While a number of purpose-built units combined an EHU with an ETU, my personal experience was of working in a number of stand-alone EHUs in Freetown, Sierra Leone.