Data Collection during the Ebola Crisis

The 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) crisis shook West Africa (and the world), and brought an abrupt end to my Peace Corps assignment in Gbarnga. In late 2014, I joined the Monitoring and Evaluation team of Partners In Health, an NGO for global health based in Boston. First in Sierra Leone, later in my newly adopted home of Liberia, my role was leading teams of analysts in collecting and analyzing data pertaining to programs in EVD patient care, maternal health, tuberculosis, HIV, and other needs.

It is not difficult to become absorbed when working in global public health: problems (if not solutions) are clear, and impacts are readily observed. For instance, analysis of screening data of common EVD symptoms during the EVD crisis in Sierra Leone uncovered a simultaneous outbreak of measles in a rural region with low vaccination rates. Applying a critical eye to a local fertility spike in rural Liberia produced evidence of a nation-wide--and perhaps region-wide--baby boom; analysis of this phenomenon spurred an article in the Lancet I co-authored.

The most crucial observation from my time working in global health and disaster response was the gap between the problems afflicting many places and the capacity of the people living there to effectively address them. Avoiding the question of why this gap exists, it is characterized by a dearth of resources and insufficient technical skills. In many current situations, these resources and skills are addressed by international response, including personnel such as me; the importance of working with communities to develop these capacities locally cannot be overemphasized. The collaborations I had with my team in developing and applying various technical skills was easily the most rewarding aspect of my experience doing response work, and naturally followed my position as a high school teacher. And the fruits of these collaborations will likely constitute a more lasting impact--certainly on me, and hopefully on my teammates--than the completion of any particular project.