Development Studies Association of Ireland (DSAI) - Humanitarian Action Study Group (HASG)
Date: Monday 4th March 2019 at 18.00
The Global Room, Watts Building (1st floor), Trinity College Dublin
Speaker: Dr Sinead Walsh, former Irish ambassador to Sierra Leone and Liberia, and co-author of Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline.
The appearance of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa in 2014 became the worst outbreak the world has seen, taking around 10,000 lives. The countries affected were mainly Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Nigeria successfully contained a related outbreak. In 2018 the disease re-appeared in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where insecurity and limited humanitarian space are affecting efforts to tackle it. This means that vulnerable neighbouring countries such as South Sudan are under threat.
Many lessons can be learned from what happened in West Africa, from a slow response at international and national levels, to problems with fully involving communities who were directly affected. These are analysed in the book co-authored by the speaker, Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline (Zed Books, 2018). Dr Sinead Walsh, who previously worked in development, was Irish Ambassador to Sierra Leone and Liberia before, throughout, and after the outbreak. She is currently the EU Ambassador to South Sudan.
Book tickets (free) at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/getting-to-zero-lessons-from-the-ebola-epidemic-in-west-africa-tickets-57116803898
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