ECU Alum: Treating Ebola ‘an experience that few can imagine’

Published Mar 20, 2015 by
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Adams, right, inspects the protective gear worn by another U.S. Public Health Service officer before the officer enters the Ebola treatment unit outside Monrovia, Liberia. (Photo courtesy U.S. Public Health Service Service)

Adams, right, inspects the protective gear worn by another U.S. Public Health Service officer before the officer enters the Ebola treatment unit outside Monrovia, Liberia. (Photo courtesy U.S. Public Health Service Service)

 

Daniel Adams, a 1999 ECU graduate, could have chosen to remain in his white-collar job overseeing management effectiveness programs at Environmental Protection Agency labs in Research Triangle Park and four other locations. Instead, he resigned that post to travel half a world away to help fight the Ebola crisis in Liberia.

Now a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, Adams has served since February as the preventative medicine officer at the Monrovia Medical Unit located about 30 miles outside the Liberian capitol.

The 25-bed hospital provided by the U.S. Defense Department opened last November. It is the only U.S. government-funded medical facility in Liberia.

“We have mainly focused on treating healthcare workers who have contracted Ebola so they can get back on the front lines of treating their fellow countrymen,” Adams said. “We have celebrated life and mourned the loss of life over the past couple of months.”

The Public Health Service “has allowed me to be part of a strong mission with positive effects worldwide,” he said. “Helping treat the Ebola patients in Liberia has been an experience that few can imagine.”

The Monrovia Medical Unit, which was built to care for medical workers who become infected with the Ebola virus, sits about 30 miles outside Liberia's capital. The 25-bed facility recently treated what officials hope will be its last Ebola-positive patient. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

The Monrovia Medical Unit, which was built to care for medical workers who become infected with the Ebola virus, sits about 30 miles outside Liberia’s capital. The 25-bed facility recently treated what officials hope will be its last Ebola-positive patient. (Photo courtesy U.S. Army)

He said a highlight of his service came recently when MMU staff treated what they hope will be the last Ebola-positive patient in the country.

A native of Greenville, Adams served in the Army after graduation and worked overseas as a civilian military employee. He also did postgraduate work at Anna Maria College in Massachusetts.

“I remember a leader in (the Public Health Service Officer Basic Course) telling me that we are here to ‘serve the underserved.’ I took that to heart.”

He said those words made an impression on him because that’s what he learned at ECU. “I feel it is important for everyone associated with ECU to hear how we reach around the world to help serve the unserved populations.”

Volunteering to serve at the Ebola clinic isn’t the first time Adams has sought out new experiences. “At my wedding reception in the Philippines, I requested that we have food indigenous to the area. I got what I wished for – bat!”

– Steve Tuttle