A FORMER Poole Hospital nurse has spoken of his time helping to tackle the ebola crisis at an epidemic hotspot in Sierra Leone.

David Ross spent five weeks in the outbreak ravaged country working as a British Red Cross nurse, starting just before Christmas.

The 30-year-old, who used to work in Poole’s accident and emergency department, spent the first fortnight at the established Red Cross ebola treatment centre in Kenema, before being made head nurse at a new treatment centre set up rapidly to tackle a new hotspot at Kono.

David, who grew up in Rwanda and has worked as a nurse in South Africa and Zambia, said a small team of 13 worked 14-hour days there until more nurses and doctors were trained. He said: “By the time I left we had a team of nine international nurses and 40 local nurses looking after the same number of patients as we did when we first opened.”

The terrible stigma associated with the disease played a part at Kono, added David, where the first 20 patients arrived with serious haemorrhagic signs, bleeding from the eyes, mouth, nose and ears.

But as positive word spread they began to come during the earlier stages of the disease.

He added: “The most challenging thing for me was that, as an emergency nurse, I like patients to survive.

“In Sierra Leone a lot of patients died. It was tough seeing young men in full health catching ebola and dying 10 days later.

“Ebola just strips someone so quickly. The look each patient has when they find out they have ebola will stay with me for a long time and watching them try to fight the disease was tough, especially not being able to give them physical contact and reassurance.

“However, when inside the high risk zone we would often hold their hands, bathe them and try to alleviate their symptoms.

“Sometimes a whole family would be infected and die, or orphans were left. Our first survivor from Kono gave us all great joy – she was a sweet 10-year-old girl who had been staying with her aunt when she contracted Ebola and is now back at home living with her father.”

Now back in the UK and working at an NHS walk-in centre in Liverpool, David added: “Ebola is not over yet. It may be fading from the news but the effects of it, just like a war, will last generations.”

To find out more or donate to the Red Cross ebola appeal, visit redcross.org.uk