USD Magazine Summer 2015

S CLASS  NOTES

School of Peace alumni work to stop spread of Ebola [ h a r r o w i n g ] HOLDING THE LINE

by Andrew Faught

ettled by African Ameri- cans in 1820, the West African nation of Liberia

tary advisor for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Both played significant roles toward preventing the spread and ultimately halting the out- break of the virus, which kills about half its victims, according to the World Health Organiza- tion. In Liberia, which was ground zero for the outbreak, 4,100 people died. As a member of USAID’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), Patterson arrived in the country in September — at the height of the outbreak

— to help choreograph the construction of Ebola treat- ment units around the nation. While Patterson was never near the so-called “hot zone,” he did come in close proximity to the bodies of Ebola victims, which were lying untended in streets and houses. Patterson and DART members were able to organize teams to safely remove and bury the corpses. “There was a study that came out that said that may have been the single most effective part of the whole response,” Patterson says, noting the disease can

is no stranger to cataclysms. In its history, it has known civil war and political instability. A 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus, the largest in history, further pierced the soul of the country of 4.3 million. Near the heart of the drama were two USD alumni — Yusuf Mzee Gawany ’07, an associate field protection officer for the United Nations High Commis- sioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and John Patterson ’13, a mili-

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