How suburban native helps to fight Ebola in Africa
Before Daniel Brencic could enter any government buildings in Guinea, he had to wash his hands with a chlorine solution as guards watched. Sometimes, they scanned his forehead to read his temperature.
Brencic had his temperature taken twice before he was allowed to board his departing flight back to the U.S. last week. The results were written on his boarding pass.
These measures are all part of Guinea's effort to control the deadly Ebola outbreak — the reason Brencic was in the west African country.
The Brookfield native spent the past three weeks helping Guinean government officials organize their Ebola-fighting efforts. As a health scientist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Brencic works to help countries create an organizational structure, develop emergency operations centers, coordinate information about the virus from smaller towns around the country, and organize help from United Nations agencies and nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs.
Brencic's done this in many countries — he's been in Jordan, Bangladesh, India and Thailand this year alone — but this trip was different, he said, because it was the first time it was a “crisis mode.”
“This was, by far, the most challenging,” said Brencic, 26, who now lives in Atlanta. “The sheer number of resources still needed is incredible. There's so much need that it was hard to leave after three weeks. I might go back in December.”
Brencic had no direct contact with Ebola patients while in Guinea but had done preparedness training anyway. He carried protective supplies such as a face shield, an isolation gown and foot covers everywhere he went, in case he was at risk of exposure to the disease.
Brencic's work in Guinea is part of the Global Health Security Agenda, a plan aimed at containing disease outbreaks around the world. Helping contain diseases or viruses in other countries helps prevent them from being spread to other parts of the world — and to Americans, said Kristen Nordlund, a St. Charles native and a CDC communication specialist.
The CDC has 25 workers in Guinea working in different capacities to curb the Ebola outbreak, plus another 100 people working in other West African counties. Brencic's job of setting up an infrastructure is an important part of the virus-fighting process, Nordlund said.
“It's not something people necessarily think of as the first thing to do,” she said. “Everybody tries to scramble to help and has their heart in the right place, but you have people doing the same things and not being accountable to each other. That's why the emergency management structure makes things more productive. We're going in there and trying to make sure that we can leave something (useful) behind.”
Brencic hopes his work helps save lives, both in Guinea and the United States.
“I feel fortunate I was given the opportunity to help,” he said.