A Personal Journal Account of the Monrovia Medical Unit in Liberia

Abstract

On September 16, 2014, President Obama, speaking from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, declared the Ebola epidemic in West Africa a national security priority and laid out the US government’s plan for contributing to and helping to lead the international response. There were, and remain, several facets to the US government’s efforts to help control the epidemic, including the commitment to provide a facility and staffing in Liberia that would ensure access to a high level of quality care for any Liberian or international health care workers who may, themselves, become infected and ill with Ebola. That facility came to be known as the Monrovia Medical Unit and is staffed by officers of the US Public Health Service. The following pages are excerpts from the journal I kept during my time at the Monrovia Medical Unit, which I hope will relate some elements of the concerted effort that took place that led to this arm of the US government response being established. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:581–585)