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

McDiarmid, Melissa; Crestani, Rosa

Protecting health workers from preventable illness, disability and death must become a fundamental first step in building resilient health systems capable of planning for and effectively responding to public health emergencies while maintaining core services. 1 2 The health sector is already known as a 'highhazard' employment zone, even when workers provide routine clinical care under circumstances clearly safer than an emergency response. 3 Beyond the anticipated infectious agents such as tuberculosis and hepatitis that a worker might encounter, other hazard categories include chemical, physical and psychological risks which threaten worker health and safety. 4 The sector's poor workforce illness and injury rates reflect these hazards, even in well-resourced settings. In the UK, for example, illness and injury rates are about 30% higher than the all industry average. 5 These hazards not only endanger the personal safety of skilled health staff, but cripple health systems already burdened by workforce shortages.