"The few medical charities that do the risky work of treating patients have scoured their rosters of veterans and asked them to recommend colleagues.
A month ago, those agencies — including Doctors Without Borders and the International Medical Corps — had almost no volunteers. The corps had only seven responses to its first appeal. Four years ago, after the earthquake in Haiti, it got 2,000.
Now they — with the recent addition of Partners in Health, the medical charity run by Dr. Paul Farmer at Harvard Medical School — each have more than 100 professionals expressing interest. More than 1,600 others have signed up through the United States Agency for International Development.
“It really turned around in the last two weeks,” said Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, the development agency’s assistant administrator for global health. More media coverage, appeals by President Obama, and radio and TV appearances by the U.S.A.I.D. administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, mentioning the website for volunteers all helped, he said.
But the agency is still granting access to its list slowly, through a subcontractor, and the charities are carefully winnowing their own lists, looking first for those who have worked in disaster areas or now work in hospital wards with the meticulous protection measures needed to prevent Ebola transmission."
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/h...o-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
A month ago, those agencies — including Doctors Without Borders and the International Medical Corps — had almost no volunteers. The corps had only seven responses to its first appeal. Four years ago, after the earthquake in Haiti, it got 2,000.
Now they — with the recent addition of Partners in Health, the medical charity run by Dr. Paul Farmer at Harvard Medical School — each have more than 100 professionals expressing interest. More than 1,600 others have signed up through the United States Agency for International Development.
“It really turned around in the last two weeks,” said Dr. Ariel Pablos-Méndez, the development agency’s assistant administrator for global health. More media coverage, appeals by President Obama, and radio and TV appearances by the U.S.A.I.D. administrator, Dr. Rajiv Shah, mentioning the website for volunteers all helped, he said.
But the agency is still granting access to its list slowly, through a subcontractor, and the charities are carefully winnowing their own lists, looking first for those who have worked in disaster areas or now work in hospital wards with the meticulous protection measures needed to prevent Ebola transmission."
snip
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/h...o-spot-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news