Duty of care and health worker protections in the age of Ebola: lessons from Médecins Sans Frontières

McDiarmid, Melissa; Crestani, Rosa

As WHO has now declared the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a 'public health emergency of international concern', 21 the global response must advance beyond efforts to raise staffing numbers and medical competency. Indeed, a competent response requires a protected health workforce. Building on the MSF experience, pandemic planning and emergency response starts with the comprehensive organisation of the care mission from a safety perspective. This requires anticipating hazards and providing linked prevention services, training commensurate to the significant hazards present and appropriate and sufficient protective equipment for caregivers. These duty of care actions form a fortified framework of safety and health protections for the health workforce, which in turn, add resilience to fragile health systems.