to December 2014, then returned for a second tour in March and April 2015. “I work in infectious disease re-
search at the NIH, so this is an area I’m involved with every day and very passionate about,” Holshue says. “I felt like I had something to contribute, and I really wanted to help in any way I could. I know that every other officer I was there with felt the same way.” Prior to her first deployment to Liberia, Holshue was sent to the Center for Domestic Preparedness, where she and the rest of her team trained extensively in a mock Ebola treatment unit that mimicked what they would face in-country. “We went through the whole
process of putting on and taking off the personal protection equipment,” Holshue recalls. “It’s a whole differ- ent way of being because you have to be aware all the time. For exam- ple, you can’t just brush up against something because it might tear the leg of your suit and expose you to the virus.”
Once in Liberia, Holshue and a few others were sent to a working Ebola treatment unit in a “hot zone” for additional training in patient care, while the rest of her teammates put the finishing touches on the MMU and worked with other ser- vices to establish supply chains. “That extra training helped us significantly,” Holshue says. “By the time we admitted our first patient to the MMU, we felt comfortable taking care of that person because we had practiced so much.”
Heroes and survivors During their time at the MMU, Holshue’s team cared for more than a dozen patients, almost all of them Liberian health care workers who had become infected, or were suspected of being infected, while doing their jobs. At the height of the
PHOTOS: RIGHT, PAUL SANCYA/AP; TOP RIGHT, CDC; FACING PAGE, BOTTOM, USPHS; TOP, GETTY IMAGES/THE WASHINGTON POST
The Zika virus, transmitted by mosquitoes, has been linked to microcephaly, a severe birth defect, when it infects pregnant women (above). Toxic lev- els of lead have been found in the water supply in Flint, Mich. (left).
OTHER USPHS MISSIONS
Officers in the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service serve with more than 20 federal departments or agencies, includ- ing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Indian Health Service, the Department of Homeland Security, and DoD. They also respond to emerging public health concerns; Commissioned Corps of- ficers deployed to Flint, Mich., where residents have been exposed to high levels of lead, and are helping track and research the Zika virus.
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