Former ECHO Free Clinic Student Coordinator Fights to End Ebola in Kono, Sierra Leone

New York, NY (December 30, 2014) – Dr. Dan Kelly, a former student coordinator of the Einstein Community Health Outreach  (ECHO) Free Clinic, is now on the front lines of the Ebola fight. The ECHO Free Clinic,  a project of the Institute for Family Health and a student group from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been operating at the Walton Family Health Center each Saturday for the past 15 years.

Dr. Kelly is currently in the Kono District of Sierra Leone, an area being devastated by the Ebola outbreak. Last summer he was in Kono focusing on building community-based Ebola programs to identify and refer patients into care. Once the number of Ebola cases began to surge, he took on a clinical role because of the need and lack of any expatriate support.

Dr. Kelly recently spoke with Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s  blog, The Doctor’s Tablet,  about his work in Kono and shared the most important message he wants to convey about the Ebola response: “This Ebola epidemic has been a defining moment in public-health history. I believe we as the international community will never allow an Ebola outbreak to grow into an emerging pandemic of this proportion again because we will make a stand and support capacity-building efforts for fragile health systems all around the world. “

Dr. Kelly is the co-founder and chief strategy officer of Wellbody Alliance.