Nathalie MacDermott Doctor from Wales Date of Birth: 01.01.1982 Country: Great Britain

1. Welsh Doctor Returns to Fight Ebola Epidemic
2. Returning to the Disaster Zone
3. Ebola's Deadly Toll and the Need for Help
4. MacDermott's Determination
5. Cautious Return

Welsh Doctor Returns to Fight Ebola Epidemic

After spending three weeks in self-quarantine in her Cardiff flat after working with Ebola victims, Welsh doctor Nathalie MacDermott is preparing to return to Liberia to continue her fight against the epidemic.

Returning to the Disaster Zone

MacDermott, 32, self-isolated for the three-week incubation period after returning from West Africa, where she had been helping victims of the deadly disease. However, after testing negative for Ebola, she said she could not stand idly by while people were dying in need of her help. MacDermott spent two weeks in Liberia earlier this summer with the charity Samaritan's Purse. During that time, she witnessed two of her colleagues, American doctor Kent Brantly and aid worker Nancy Writebol, contract the deadly virus. She helped care for them before they were flown back home for treatment, and took over the running of the Ebola treatment center in the capital city of Monrovia as Brantly, 33, and Writebol, 59, were quarantined for treatment. Both made full recoveries in the United States.

Ebola's Deadly Toll and the Need for Help

Since then, the Ebola outbreak has claimed thousands of lives. According to the World Health Organization, over 3,800 people have died from Ebola and almost 8,000 are confirmed to have been infected. With the virus now spreading to Europe, with Spanish nurse Teresa Romero Ramos becoming the first person to contract it outside of West Africa, MacDermott felt compelled to return to the scene of the outbreak. According to reports from Liberia, the impoverished and underdeveloped health system is buckling under the strain of Ebola. MacDermott said the situation is far worse than when she was first there:

> "Last time, it was an epidemic that was rapidly spiraling out of control and the doctors were overwhelmed by how few resources they had, the shortage of beds, the number of patients. But now it's on a much, much bigger scale, and often patients can't get access to care because there are just no beds, and some of them are dying outside the treatment centers."

MacDermott's Determination

Determined not to turn away from those in need, MacDermott is returning to Liberia. Of the approximately 100 patients she treated during her time there, only three survived, but she said the plight is even more desperate now. "It's very difficult to have to turn somebody away who's desperately ill and say, 'I can't help you because we haven't got a bed for you,' knowing they will probably die as a consequence of that," MacDermott said. "But at the same time, you're fighting an overwhelming epidemic, and you have to limit what you're doing, in the hope that in the long run, it will make a big difference."

Cautious Return

Upon returning from Liberia, MacDermott adhered to advice from Public Health Wales and only communicated with family and friends via Skype, even attending a wedding virtually. She had been treating two Spanish missionaries who later died of Ebola. MacDermott was naturally concerned about her own health but optimistic that she would have been able to return to the UK for treatment if she had needed to.