A WEEK ago, Oxfordshire man Andy Gleadle was at home watching the horror of the Ebola epidemic unfold in Sierra Leone.

But now the 47-year-old, whose wife Candice, 42, works in a city school, is in West Africa witnessing first-hand the extent of the virus.

Mr Gleadle, who has worked for the International Medical Corps (IMC) for 10 years, is leading a team building two new treatment centres for 200 of 7,000 sufferers.

And he warned the crisis will “inevitably” get worse before it gets better and urged the international community to send more help.

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The incurable Ebola virus has already claimed more than 3,400 lives in this outbreak, which began in Guinea, West Africa, on March 25.

Mr Gleadle, who ives in Faringdon with his wife, who works at Oxford’s Dragon School, said the international response had been far too slow.

He said: “It is incredible challenging to go on to shift every day knowing 55 per cent of people in your care will die.

“This is one of the toughest responses we have ever carried out. Sometimes all we can do is enable people to die with dignity and in a calm environment.”

Oxford Mail:

  • Dr Felicity Hartnel injects a potential Ebola vaccine into Ruth Atkins in Oxford last month

He said one of his doctors in neighbouring Liberia had been caring for a seven-year-old girl whose brother and parents had died from Ebola.

She contracted the disease and IMC took her into their care on Monday.

He said: “If you’re a seven-year-old child feeling very sick from this virus and people caring for you are wearing rubber suits, gloves and face masks, trying to give compassionate care is important.

“Our doctor was able to comfort this girl, but you do get attached to patients, especially young children.”

The girl died yesterday morning.

Mr Gleadle said the most optimistic estimates predicted the virus could be controlled by February if action was taken rapidly.

But he said: “It is inevitably going to get worse before it gets better.

“We can’t keep up with it at the moment. We all need more funding.”

Mr Gleadle has worked in humanitarian aid in more than 20 countries for two decades.

After qualifying as a mental health nurse he spent almost 10 years working in Africa, mostly on primary healthcare and nutrition.

He is now director of programme performance and development for IMC. He flew out to Sierra Leone last Thursday and will stay until next Wednesday.

The IMC was established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses. It is a humanitarian, non-profit-making organisation dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through healthcare training.

The Ebola virus only emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan in 1976.

An infected person usually develops a fever, headache and joint and muscle pain. After days this progresses to internal bleeding, usually fatal.

The 45 per cent of sufferers who survive the virus are immune, but doctors have yet to develop a vaccine.

Oxford University is trying to develop the world’s first vaccine and Marcham mum-of-two Ruth Atkins was the first person to be injected with it in a trial in September. If she and other volunteers show no negative side-effects, the vaccine could be rolled out in Africa this year.

Prof Adrian Hill, who is leading the trial, said last night: “The trial in Oxford is going well, there have been no issues at all so far.”

Cowley-based charity Oxfam has provided water supplies, hand washing facilities and soap to more than half a million people in West Africa.

The charity is now planning to triple its work with a £12m programme helping 2.5 million people.

David MacDonald, who is leading the response, said: “The need to break the spread of Ebola is absolutely key.”

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