Pauline’s heroism

I’VE been saddened to read that Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey will face an inquiry over her conduct in the diagnosis of her ebola.

The World Health Organisation records that, at the time of the ebola crisis, no vaccines, few diagnostics, no drugs and few medical teams or trained responders were available. The virus rampaged through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

On September 30, 2014, it was recorded that 6,500 patients were ill and by October the headlines read: ‘Ebola threatens the world.’

Military personnel, scientists and doctors were on the ground, but the situation didn’t change until a dedicated group of trained nurses and doctors went to the area, and worked in harrowing circumstances to treat the ill and the dying and to educate local people in the prevention of the spread of the disease.

Pauline was one of those people who laid her life on the line for others and, like many, I’m guilty of thinking ‘we beat ebola’, when, in fact, it was Pauline and her colleagues who did so.

She paid heavily for her dedication, as did several others. She has tried to educate others about ebola since she returned and has been willing to help with research, all the while living with the debilitating aftermath of this terrible disease and succumbing to illness caused by it.

She is without doubt a heroine and the world would be a worse place today without Pauline and her colleagues. I hope everyone remembers that. Mrs GWYNETH RICHMOND, Inchinnan, Renfrewshire.