Meet two heroes of our Time. <\/p>\n
These Bronx health-care workers are taking their skills to the frontline of the fight against Ebola. <\/p>\n
Dr. Julie Hoffman, an infectious disease specialist at Jacobi Medical Center, and Sara Back, a family nurse practitioner and HIV\/AIDS specialist at North Central Bronx Hospital, will spend the first few weeks of 2015 fighting the spread of the deadly virus in West Africa. <\/p>\n
Being in medicine is not just treating patients locally, said Back, 52. Its trying to extend my skills elsewhere. <\/p>\n
Back has volunteered to go to Liberia with Partners in Health. Hoffman will make the trip on Jan.2 with the nonprofit International Medical Corps. Her destination was not finalized, but she said it's likely Sierra Leone. <\/p>\n
Hoffman, 51, said she began thinking about volunteering as soon as the outbreak began spreading through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone earlier this year. Both humble helpers agreed that the international response to the epidemic was disorganized. <\/p>\n
If we could have responded earlier, then less people would have probably died, Hoffman said of U.S. volunteer aid efforts. It was chaotic at first. <\/p>\n
Since the onset of the outbreak, 6,373 people have died in the three West African nations, according to the most recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <\/p>\n
Last week, Time magazine named frontline responders such as Back and Hoffman as its Persons of the Year for 2014. <\/p>\n
For their tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to strengthen its defenses, for the risks they took and the lives they saved, Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a video released on the magazines website. <\/p>\n
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Bronx health-care workers will fight Ebola in Liberia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Meet two heroes of our Time. Continue reading