Norfolk Pharmacist will be at Forefront of Ebola Fight

A pharmacist from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is off to Sierra Leone to play a vital role in the fight against Ebola.

Alistair Bolt will be responsible for the supplies for a new experimental treatment and for the initial supply of the treatment drugs. He will prepare the drugs before they are sent out to two treatment centres where they will be given to patients with the disease.

The trial is being run by Oxford University and Alistair will be based in Port Loko not far from Freetown.
Alistair is the medicines information pharmacist at the NNUH “I deal with problems of complex drug dosing, drug safety in pregnancy and breast feeding and other problems with medicines ,”he explained.
Alistair has worked as a pharmacist in Norwich since 1986. He spent three years at a hospital pharmacy in Tanzania, six weeks at a centre in Sri Lanka teaching people how to make eye drops and four weeks teaching the same thing in Dominica in the Caribbean.

“I recently saw an article in a pharmaceutical journal saying they wanted volunteers and I contacted them and said I was willing to go and help with the Ebola trials. Ten days ago I got an e mail saying they need volunteers.
I am looking forward to it, it will be very different and I’m glad I’ve got skills that people can use.”
Alistair, who lives in Norwich, said he would not be dealing with patients so he will not have to go into quarantine when he returns. He also plans to keep in touch with the team while he is away and take along a camera so he can enjoy his photography hobby.