抗击埃博拉：请看这家公司如何在利比里亚保护自己的员工

    但是在园区周围，疫情却愈发肆虐。

    今年7月，在园区以西仅35英里的利比里亚首都蒙罗维亚，出现了更多的埃博拉病例。在园区以北不到5英里的小镇卡卡塔，疫情也十分严重。在卡卡塔镇的C.H. Rennie医院，医护人员们因为害怕自己也染上这种瘟疫，而纷纷抛弃工作当了逃兵，导致医院最终只能关门。由于病人无处求医，C.H. Rennie医院不得不将它认为的非埃博拉病例转移到凡士通利比里亚公司医院治疗。

    其中两名病人最后证实患有埃博拉病毒，其中一人最初是因为怀孕而转来这家医院的，另一名患者原本怀疑是药物使用过量致病，二人最后都在凡士通医院去世。该怀孕妇女的婴儿最终也胎死腹中。

    但到了８月初，园区的埃博拉病例开始激增，加亚西表示，这与埃博拉在附近村镇的肆虐有关。他说：“情况很快就失控了。”

    截至上周，凡士通利比里亚公司已经出现74起埃博拉病例，其中60%的患者都是与该公司直接有关的人，其中54名患者不治去世，32名患者是凡士通的员工或家属。在过去两个月，有好几次，拥有23张床位的埃博拉治疗基地几乎都在满负荷运转。

    为了扼制新病例激增的势头，园区管理层采取了被加西亚称为“极为艰巨”的努力。该公司的埃博拉治疗团队从6人增加到了大约50人。加西亚隔壁的一间会议室也变成了抗击埃博拉的“作战室”，用来收集潜在感染者和密切接触者的信息。（公司还要求园区所有人仔细观察各种异常行为，以及邻居是否有隐藏患病亲属的情况。）任何进入生产区的员工必须先洗手并测量体温。园区的27所学校也因疫情而关闭了，其中三座学校被改作隔离区。该公司的“抗埃”教育也在继续。

    与此同时，该公司的橡胶业务也遭到了一定打击。以往，该公司平均年产3000万磅橡胶。现在它的农业业务（主要是橡胶树）正在以接近100%的产能生产，但其橡胶原木产量下跌了50%。对生产打击最大的，是当地政府颁布的宵禁令，导致生产时间有所减短。另外疫情对当地私人胶农的影响也很大，使该公司难以像以往一样从私人胶农手中购买橡胶作为补充。加西亚称，这一部分的下跌幅度已经达到了25%。

    大约十多年前，凡士通利比里亚公司还曾遭受长达14年的利比里亚内战的摧残，导致橡胶园关闭数年，战火对该公司的工厂、工人住宅、学校、发电站和医疗设施都造成了严重损坏。加西亚帮助当时的领导团队重新修复了厂区，然后带领它继续生产。不过加西亚认为，相比之下，这次的埃博拉疫情是个更大的挑战。

    加西亚透露说，通过跟踪监控潜在接触者，公司的“抗埃”战斗已经取得了一定成果。目前有212人正在自愿接受隔离。在9月份的一次新闻发布会上，美国疾病控制中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）的汤姆•弗里登对凡士通利比里亚公司提出了表扬，特别是赞扬了该公司在没有政府支持的情况下，迅速控制住了埃博拉危机。该公司发言人丹•达顿表示，公司的埃博拉患者一度降至0人，但是在10月4日到5日，疫情又有所反复。到本周二，该公司的埃博拉治疗中心又收治了4名病人。

    自从该公司的第一例埃博拉病毒爆发以来，凡士通利比里亚公司就一直与美国疾病控制中心保持合作。上周，该公司又开始与一家叫做撒玛利亚救援会（Samaritan’s Purse）的国际援助组织进行合作，后者最近刚刚向利比里亚援助了100吨物资。本月初，随着美国总统奥巴马下令在该地区部署美军以协助抗击埃博拉疫情后，又有更多的援助抵达。

    当被问到自己如何评价公司在疫情中的表现时，加西亚表示，他最遗憾的一件事就是：“如果更多援助早一点到达利比里亚就好了。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎

    In the regions around the concession, however, the epidemic raged.

    In July, more cases popped up in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, 35 miles west of the Firestone concession. The situation in Kakata, a town less than five miles north of the plantation’s northern border, was just as dire. The C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata eventually shut down. Its staff dwindled as health workers deserted their jobs due to fear of the disease or died from it. With no place to turn, C.H. Rennie began to send what it thought were non-Ebola cases to Firestone Liberia’s hospital.

    Two of those patients—one of whom was referred to Firestone for pregnancy-related needs and another who was suspected of suffering from a drug overdose—ended up having Ebola and died at the Firestone facility. The pregnant patient’s baby was stillborn.

    In early August, the concession saw a surge in cases that Garcia says is attributable to the disease’s infiltration of nearby towns. “Things just went out of control very fast,” Garcia says.

    The Ebola care team at Firestone LiberiaCourtesy: Firestone Liberia

    As of late last week, there had been 74 cases of Ebola at Firestone Liberia—about 60% of which involved individuals directly associated with company. Of those who contracted the disease, 54 are dead. Thirty-two of the deceased are Firestone employees or their dependents. On several occasions over the last two months, the company’s new, 23-bed Ebola facility has neared full capacity.

    In an effort to contain the surge of new cases, the concession’s management took on what Garcia calls “herculean” efforts. Its Ebola medical staff increased from six to about 50 people. A conference room next to Garcia’s office morphed into a war room to collect data on Ebola patients’ potential contacts and reports of potential new cases. (Firestone Liberia residents are supposed to be on the lookout for unusual activity or neighbors who may be hiding sick relatives or disappearing themselves.) Employees entering Firestone facilities must stop to wash their hands and receive a temperature check. The concession’s 27 schools closed have because of the epidemic and three of them now function as quarantine centers. And the company’s education efforts continue.

    The concession’s rubber business, meanwhile—which typically produces 30 million pounds per year—has taken a hit. Its agricultural operation—rubber trees, mainly—is running at close to 100%, but its rubber wood mill has seen a 50% drop-off in production. The biggest blow to production has been the government-instituted curfews that have cut operating hours and the epidemic’s effect on local, private rubber farmers in Liberia, from whom Firestone buys some of its supply. That volume has decreased by 25%, Garcia says.

    Just over ten years ago, Firestone Liberia was caught in the middle of the nation’s 14-year civil war, which caused the plantation to shut down for several years and inflicted severe damage to the company’s factory, worker housing, schools, power generation, and medical facilities. Garcia helped lead that team that rehabilitated the plantation and got it up and running afterwards. By comparison, the Ebola epidemic, he says, is a bigger challenge.

    According to Garcia, the Firestone Liberia team has made headway on that tough task by monitoring potential Ebola contacts—212 people are currently in voluntary quarantine. At a press conference in September, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tom Frieden credited Firestone Liberia for tackling the Ebola crisis promptly and without government support. Firestone Liberia had decreased its Ebola case count to zero, says company spokesman Don Darden, but on the weekend of October 4-5 that changed. By Tuesday, it had four patients in its Ebola treatment center.

    Firestone Liberia has been working alongside the CDC since its first Ebola case, and last week, it started working with an international aid group called Samaritan’s Purse, which recently donated 100 tons of supplies to Liberia. More help arrived in the region earlier this month after President Barack Obama ordered the deployment of U.S. military troops to assist in combating the Ebola crisis.

    When asked to assess his company’s response to the epidemic, that’s the one thing Garcia says he regrets —“I wish more help had come to Liberia sooner.”