As Europe struggles to contain Covid-19, some of the country’s leading health and science experts reflect on the previous outbreaks they have witnessed on the frontline and the lessons that can be learned to prevent its spread. Sars: Dr Simon Mardel, OBE I was a clinician with the World Health Organisation when the SARS virus was discovered in 2003. I had already been involved in previous outbreaks like Ebola, Marburg and Lassa fever (during the Sierra Leone civil war in 1997) and was focused on how to improve treatment but at the same time stop the spread of infection in health care. Health professionals are on the frontline of such outbreaks. Over the years many colleagues have ended up contracting diseases, often with tragic consequences. SARS – like Ebola – was spread through healthcare facilities. I’m really worried about the potential of Covid-19 to do the same. During severe outbreaks staff are forced to work in extreme circumstances and can miss out on essential steps of protection. I remember a nurse I once saw crying into her gloved hands on an Ebola ward, grieving for a friend she had cared for during her last hours of life; or a doctor who performed a difficult procedure on a nurse with Lassa fever in a dimly-lit, overcrowded ward with no bin to store his medical waste.
