Dr Chris Lewis: interview 2 and PDF transcript

[00:00:00] Role as health and humanitarian adviser with Department for International Development (DFID), went to join Ebola team in Sierra Leone in September, background in humanitarian response and health, experience leading health response to other humanitarian crises. [00:02:00] Role on Ebola response, strategy and health advisory policy areas, research and innovation in epidemiology, recalls first being made aware of Ebola [in 2014], formally involved with Ebola response from September. [00:04:00] Recalls early concerns about this outbreak of Ebola. [00:05:40] Going to Sierra Leone in September, what Freetown was like, compares to other humanitarian crises. [00:07:40] Role with DFID, meetings with World Health Organisation [00:09:00] International community response to Ebola modelling and epidemiology projections. [00:11:15] Discusses whether Ebola was a health problem or humanitarian problem. [00:13:15] MSF, CDC all at capacity and those organisations couldn’t expand their response any further. [00:14:30] DFID team in Sierra Leone. [00:15:20] September, District Ebola Response Centres (DERCs) established, what they did; delivering response at a local level, other key stages in the response to Ebola. [00:19:20] Cases still growing each week, cases eventually coming down in mid-December, never witnessed Ebola up close in Sierra Leone. [00:22:00] Personal feelings on Ebola, his confidence in response to Ebola. [00:24:00] What sort of crisis he thought Ebola was, reflects on it being a global crisis. [00:26:30] What the failures of Ebola were, remembers waiting for Ebola cases to decline. [00:28:30] Discussion of who Mark Honigsbaum (interviewer) should try and speak to in Sierra Leone when he goes there. [00:29:30] Mentions DFID Ebola review being done, currently internal only. [00:31:00] Importance of early isolation of Ebola patients and safe burials. [00:32:47] End of interview.

28/03/2015

60.2 MB 1 CAF audio file,1 transcript

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PDF transcript created by archivist for preservation and access reasons. See OH3/20/5 for original Microsoft Word format version of transcript.

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