On the evening of June 23, a middle-aged woman walked into the emergency room of Phebe Hospital with a fever. Located in Bong County in the rural heart of Liberia, Phebe was known as one of the best hospitals in the country, supported by the local government and several international...

After just nine days, my training with Doctors Without Borders in the management of Ebola is now complete. Tomorrow, I will travel to Bong County, in central Liberia, to help International Medical Corps set up its very first Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) and train the first 50 staff that will...

Scrubs: check. Gum boots: check. Gloves: check. Tychem suit: check. Mask: check. Hood: check. Apron: check. Goggles: check. Gloves again: check. "Ready?" I ask the Liberian nurse assisting me. She shakes her head and grabs a small strip of duct tape, covering the...

Una vez más, África está en el ojo del huracán. Y, como suele pasar, las noticias no son buenas.

Los medios de comunicación parecen alternar largos periodos de ignorancia absoluta hacia el continente con breves estallidos salpicados de locura, normalmente debidos al temor de que un brote...

Ancora una volta, l'Africa è sotto i riflettori internazionali. E come al solito, non si tratta di buone notizie.

I media sembrano alternare lunghi periodi in cui ignorano completamente l'Africa, puntellati da brevi momenti in cui si perdono le staffe per il continente, solitamente a causa della diffusione di...

Once again, Africa is in the international spotlight. As usual, the news isn't good.

The media seems to alternate between long stretches of ignoring Africa entirely, punctuated by short bursts of completely freaking out about the continent, usually due to a new outbreak of disease or terrorism that we...

At a recent dinner with a group of ex-pats in Dhaka, the subject of cholera came up, as it tends to when I'm around. It was a warm evening and we were seated outside, sipping our drinks and fighting off mosquitos. When one of the other ex-pats at the table...

I met John a few days ago on a bitter cold morning near the start of my shift in the emergency room at Rhode Island Hospital. John was in his late fifties, with a big, bushy gray-white beard and a twinkle in his eyes. Add a red velvet suit and...

At the University Teaching Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda, a nurse brings in a young woman on a stretcher who is obviously pregnant, with a large protruding abdomen. The nurse calls to a young Rwandan physician standing nearby, ready to receive the patient. "Doctor, this patient was in a road traffic...

It's just before midnight in the busy Rhode Island emergency room where I work as a doctor, and there are still more than 50 people waiting to be seen. I hurry in to see my first patient of the night. He's a young man who has been waiting more than...

I have never treated a victim of a chemical weapons attack. Indeed, there are thankfully few physicians in this world who can say that they have. In my work providing emergency care in rural Rwanda, however, I have treated several children and adults with severe organophosphate poisoning from the potent...

It was early morning in northern Rwanda, and the sun was just beginning to burn away the mist blanketing the yellow-green patchwork hills outside the hospital windows. I was scheduled to give a brief training on resuscitation to the nurses working in the neonatal unit of a rural, government hospital...

A young woman with flowing orange pants, a long red tunic, and a beautifully patterned but tattered shawl slowly picks her way across the crowded intersection, a small child clutched tightly in her arms. She appears almost oblivious to the mass of honking cars, roaring trucks, tiny three-wheeled green taxis,...

This week, millions of Jews around the world will celebrate the holiday of Passover, commemorating the Jewish exodus from ancient Egypt. At the start of the holiday, we will gather together with family and friends in homes, synagogues and community centers big and small to hold seders (special Passover meals)....

A funny thing happened to me on the way to South Sudan this past summer. Initially, I had been called out by International Medical Corps to develop a training program for local doctors and nurses at some of the smaller, rural hospitals around the country. En route to Africa, though,...

The pediatrics ward this past week at Rwinkwavu Hospital in rural Rwanda was as busy as I'd seen it in several years. Children were packed two or three to a bed, with parents and healthy siblings squatting or playing in the narrow intervals between the closely spaced beds. Still, as...

On a recent sunny afternoon in Rwinkwavu, a rural town in the small African country of Rwanda, I found myself rushing over to the pediatrics ward of the hospital where I have been volunteering off and on for several years. I had just received a text from one of the...