Dr Songu-Mbriwa
The Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone will be remembered for many reasons mainly the thousands who have died of the disease. Among the fatalities are more than 200 health workers. 12 doctors got infected and only one, Dr Komba Songu-Mbriwa survived. Umaru Fofana asked him what the experience was like, living with Ebola.
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: It wasn’t a good experience. Anyway in the first place I just want to thank God for me being alive today because even getting the news that you are Ebola positive was devastating for me, for my family and for all well wishers around me. So I would describe it as the worst moment in my life.
Umaru Fofana - Psychologically but also in terms of pain - right?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes psychologically because when I was ill it was all over the news, it was on Whatsapp everywhere. Some people were saying that I would not make it I was going to die
Umaru Fofana: I understand that your wife came to know about it on social media?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, because when I started feeling ill I thought it was fatigue so I spent two days there at the [Hastings Ebola Treatment] center and then I left on the 22nd [November] for my house. It was over the weekend that it actually got worsened and then I called my center coordinator Dr Santigie Sesay. He sent a vehicle for me and they brought me to the center where I immediately started treatment. My blood sample was collected. Even me I got it from Whatsapp that I was positive.
Umaru Fofana: Even before you were informed about it officially?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, before the result came officially, I got it from Whatsapp that I was positive.
Umaru Fofana: I mean how did that happen – do you think there was some leakage at the laboratory?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Obviously. I think so because for it to be on the social media I think it was leaked and particularly so my name was not used [specifically for the test]. I used my second name and so for it to come out on the social media to say it was my result that I was positive I found it particularly disturbing.
Umaru Fofana: You had not used your widely recognised name because you wanted to keep the whole thing concealed at least up to that point?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, exactly! Because you know I didn’t want to create panic because I am working there at the center and to be infected could create panic so the center coordinator advised that we use another name until the result came out. And then when the result came out saying it was positive it just went viral.
Umaru Fofana: How long were you admitted for?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: I was admitted on the 23rd or 24th .
Umaru Fofana: Of November?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, of November. But actually I started having symptoms on the 20th.
Umaru Fofana: How do you think you could have contracted it?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Honestly I cannot pin to anything but you know I am working there at the center so probably I may have made a mistake and in the process I unknowingly got myself infected. But I can’t tell you that this is from whom I got or contracted it or how, but I can tell you for sure it is not unconnected with the work I am doing there at the center.
Umaru Fofana: And how long did it take for you to recover
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: The first sample was collected on the very day that I went, and after 48 hours the result came through that it was positive and then after further 72 hours another result came back negative and then two other tests were done and they all came negative and they gave me the clear that I was negative of Ebola.
Umaru Fofana: That’s a remarkable turnaround in just under 72 hours
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, and I think it’s a window of opportunity for science to look into my own situation, because I recovered really speedily. I want to thank God for that and I think probably it was because I have knowledge about the disease, because when I started feeling ill I started drinking a lot of fluids and immediately started taking treatment. Maybe that all could have helped in my own case.
Umaru Fofana: Obviously as a doctor working in an Ebola facility you must have an experience of what the patients there go through, but as a patient in there yourself how did it feel like with other Ebola patients around you?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: I must say I was treated a bit differently because when I started having symptoms , when I went to the center I was isolated in my own room where I was sleeping, so when the result came out positive the deputy minister said I should continue staying there receiving treatment.
Umaru Fofana: The deputy minister of health?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, the deputy minister of health, and said “doctor you will stay here and continue to have your treatment”. So I was not per se with the other patients out there in the treatment center. I was in my own room.
Umaru Fofana: So you didn’t see what we hear patients go through – crying, screaming and all of that scene in agony?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: No, and I must thank the medical team out there at Hastings. They did tremendously well – the nurses, the doctors, especially Dr Bailey Sankoh. He was there with me day and night, so I felt even though I was going through pain I felt I had a team with me who would eventually make me recover and thank God today I have recovered fully now.
Umaru Fofana: Did it ever cross your mind that you would die, not least because all the Sierra Leonean doctors who had contracted the virus before you died. Did that make you feel that you couldn’t make it?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, the very moment I started feeling ill I was worried because working at the center I knew obviously if I was ill with fever or diarrhea it had to be Ebola and I was very worried that something bad would happen to me and especially when I left for the center. I called out my family and my son, my five year old son was crying that his dad was ill of Ebola.
Umaru Fofana: Did he know that himself?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, that his dad had been taken to Hastings and he might not come back. So at that point in time I pulled up myself and I said “I am going to do my best to come out of here and see my five year old son”.
Umaru Fofana: And how do you think this will impact your work as a doctor in an Ebola facility – the largest facility bed-wise in Sierra Leone?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Obviously it’s very scary to go through what I went through. I am having lots of pressure from family members that I should not continue to work but I keep telling them I want to rest a bit and go back and work because that is what I should do, because we are in a crisis. If we do not help to fight then the crisis will meet all of us like I was saying from day one [when] I volunteered to serve in the Ebola treatment center, and I will continue to do that. You know when the news broke that I was Ebola positive I mean there were lot of suggestions as to where I was going as – Kerry Town [or where].
Umaru Fofana: That is the British-run facility?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: Yes, and also when I was going to 34 military hospital where I was originally employed to work. But I told everyone that I believed in the medical team at Hastings and I was sure they would take good care of me. So I want to thank them for what they did for me.
Umaru Fofana: Did you say you wanted to stay at the Hastings treatment center because you were working there or what exactly happened? I am asking this because when Dr. Sheik Umar Khan – the country’s first Ebola doctor who died of the disease – when he got infected he chose not to be treated at his own clinic. So why did you decide to be treated at yours?
Capt. Komba Songu-Mbriwa: The reason being that since the inception in September 2014 we have admitted over 600 patients and we have been able to discharge 398 survivors. So I have belief in the standard protocols we have there and I was sure if I received that I would get better. And I received it – just the standard treatment that was given to all the patients. And I thank God today for my life.
© Politico 11/02/15
