The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa hit the headlines in 2014. This highly contagious and deadly virus spread rapidly through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It quickly became clear that only a military contribution could help to respond with the speed necessary to contain the outbreak. Britain's response focused on Sierra Leone due to long-established links with the country, including the presence of a small security advisory team.
Operation 'Gritrock' was launched in September 2014 to help organise the response and to rapidly build Ebola treatment centres. Military medics were sent to treat healthcare workers and staff tackling the outbreak and offer training, with soldiers providing security. By November 2014, around 900 personnel had arrived.
The British military came under civilian leadership and worked closely with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). All of these efforts were to supplement the work of the Sierra Leonean government and its people.
On 7 November 2015, Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola by the World Health Organization (WHO) after 42 days without a single new reported case. However, the disease has caused lasting damage to the country and the region.
Included here is just some of the material relating to Operation 'Gritrock' and the response to Ebola in Sierra Leone collected by IWM's Contemporary Conflicts Programme.
British forces deploy to Sierra Leone
British military personnel disembark from an RAF C-17 Globemaster at Lungi International Airport near Freetown in Sierra Leone, September 2014, at the start of Operation 'Gritrock'. The speed at which the British armed forces could deploy and the variety of roles they could perform were key factors in military intervention in the outbreak.
Sophie Smither: "So Ebola is both a virus and the name of a disease that it causes. It’s probably one of the nastiest diseases in the world because generally over at least half of the people that get infected die, so it’s what we say is very high case fatality rates, a lot of mortality. It’s a very simple little virus; there’s not much to it, but that doesn’t stop it being pretty effective. It was discovered in 1976. It was - originally only caused very small outbreaks in the central African region, the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], Gabon, there’s variations of Ebola that have appeared in Sudan, and so on. And probably before last year there had maybe been a total of a thousand cases and then obviously this outbreak has just completely rewritten everything. We’re up to – I think it’s over 11,000 deaths and 27,000 cases, so it’s just changed everything."
The nature of Ebola
Building
Ebola Treatment Centres
Engineers of 62 Works Group, Royal Engineers and of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces during the construction of the Moyamba Ebola Treatment Centre in 2014. Britain funded and oversaw the construction of six Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone, with the Royal Engineers overseeing the build and working with Sierra Leonean contractors and local military forces to complete them.
Providing medical care
Two British medics of 22 Field Hospital donning their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) before going on duty at the Kerry Town Ebola Treatment Centre, April 2015. Wearing PPE was vital in trying to prevent healthcare workers from contracting Ebola. The British military medics who worked at Kerry Town staffed a small specialist part of the Ebola treatment centre that was primarily there to care for healthcare workers and staff tackling the outbreak. This aimed to provide reassurance to healthcare workers to continue coming to assist with the crisis.
Corporal Anna Cross: "And then about midnight the doctor I knew really well came back and he said ‘Anna it’s not good news, and I’m really sorry, and you’re positive’… And I had a horrendous amount in my blood, so I – that was also I think another one of those things where as a healthcare professional you don’t want to know how sick you are, or your trajectory, or what it looks like to die of Ebola. I knew the patient that I’d looked after that had died only like a week before had had a very similar viral load to me, and that was when she was very sick, and I wasn’t that sick yet. So it wasn’t looking good at that time. And I think, it wasn’t just hearing that I had Ebola, it was hearing that I wasn’t doing well, I kind of, even when I was unsure I still thought ‘I’m twenty-five, I’m really young, I’m fit, I should be fine’. Hearing that I think really brought things home to me that my body wasn’t fighting it off, and why wasn’t it fighting it off I should be able to. So yeah, that was a kind of another surreal moment."
Contracting Ebola
Slowing the spread
of Ebola
This 'tippy-tap' is an improvised device for washing hands with chlorinated water, to help reduce the spread of the Ebola virus. This example was donated by Brian Jones, the recent head of the International Security Advisory Team (ISAT) in Sierra Leone, one of many organisations that helped to coordinate the country's response to Ebola. Setting up medical checkpoints and closely monitoring movement of people within the districts of Sierra Leone were vital in helping bring the virus under control.
Providing security
This multi-terrain pattern (MTP) shirt was worn by Lieutenant Andrew Jenkinson, who commanded a platoon of 3rd Battalion, The Rifles in Sierra Leone between January and May 2015. His platoon was split into small teams that were attached to District Ebola Response Centres (DERCs) throughout the country, where they worked closely with local forces and civilians to help coordinate the response in those areas.
Witnessing
a case of
Ebola
Two healthcare workers go to collect a suspected Ebola patient from a village in the Kono District of Sierra Leone, January 2015. This photograph was taken by Lance Corporal Andrew Mitchinson of 1st Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland. He and other men of his unit were deployed to the local area and on this occasion visited a village that had been partly cordoned off. Sadly the young woman who was evacuated to a healthcare facility later died of Ebola.
