Irish ebola worker says colleagues shunned for trying to save lives

An Irishman who’s just returned from Liberia where he’d been helping to stem the spread of the deadly ebola virus says some of his colleagues have been stigmatised for trying to save lives.

Stephen Ryan, 31, who lives in Crosshaven, Co Cork, said he’s lucky it hasn’t happened to him, but it has to others who should be praised for their work and not shunned.

Stephen, who is a veteran of several Red Cross missions having worked in Ukraine, India, Malaysia and with Balkan flood victims, admitted he was nervous in the lead-up to his deployment in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.