Eilish Cleary returns after 2nd trip to Africa to fight Ebola
New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health is back in the province after a second assignment fighting Ebola in Africa.
Dr. Eilish Cleary has spent the past few months in Sierra Leone working with the World Health Organization.
She helped organize systems to defend against the spread of the deadly disease.
Cases are down dramatically and Cleary says she has come home with a sense of accomplishment after helping so many people in the country.
"We all learn from our experiences and certainly this was a pretty profound and intense experience. So certainly I did learn a lot, I thought a lot, I experienced a lot, I felt a lot," she said.
"And so there is no doubt, it will have changed me in some way. On the other hand, I think, professionally and personally you can grow a lot in a situation like that so I feel lucky to have been able to do it."
Cleary says she's looking forward to getting back to her work as a public health doctor in the province and spending time with her family after spending half the year away.
Cleary returned to Africa in January only a few weeks after returning from a three-month trip to the continent to work with the World Health Organization.
At the time, she said she wasn't planning to return to Africa, but after a conversation with a WHO official she was appointed to a new role overseeing the Ebola surveillance program in Sierra Leone.
