Nations don't have friends; they have interests. The best motivation for a state to act if it is remote from an epidemic is if its own security is at risk.
In the ongoing effort to combat Ebola, more needs to be done to rewrite the public-health narrative. It must move from one that has been infused with fear to one that recognizes the hope for survival that supportive care can offer infected people.
You need a balance in life. You just cannot be all the time on an adrenalin peak. You need to recharge.
When I was 13, I read 'Et la paix dans le monde, Docteur?' a physician's account of working with Medecins Sans Fontieres during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. It was this book that inspired me to work for MSF.
Somehow we got used to death, and then we dehumanised it. We account for conflicts in figures. Ebola is 13,500 infected, 5,000 people have died... People are losing their sense of empathy, their sense of wanting to do something.
Sometimes in your career, you are at the right place at the right moment. But you have to be aware that eventually you may no longer be the right person for that position. So build your succession and foster for it while you are still at the peak of you career.
Our humanitarian aid system is sick and needs to be fixed. It needs to get a reality check and get back humanity.
People inspire me. Every day, I meet amazing individuals in the field. When I see a mother who has walked for three weeks to come to a MSF clinic, with two kids on her back and her belongings on her head, facing intimidation and physical abuse on her way, I am inspired by her resilience - her desire for life.
I'm completely allergic to being politically correct.
When I was young, and I wouldn't eat, my parents would say, 'Eat, or else you're going to become a little Biafran.'
People say I'm tough and too blunt. I'm a product of my organization. MSF is a blunt, tough, no-nonsense organization.
I find myself a bit boring because I somehow always wanted to be MSF.
What are individuals in wars today? Expendable commodities, dead or alive.
The effects of the attacks against health facilities emanate far beyond those immediately killed and injured. They demolish routine and lifesaving health care for all. They make life impossible. Full stop.
When there were cases of Ebola in the States, I respected that people wanted to address concerns and take some sort of action, but the focus turned completely to the U.S. At one point, we started to wonder, Where is the Ebola epidemic happening? The States - or West Africa?
Never lower your sight - always look at people at eye-level.
I am absolutely convinced there should be financial and political incentives for states to declare. You shouldn't be the pariah of the world if you say you have Ebola, but in reality this is what happens.
The unspoken thing, the elephant in the room, is the war against terrorism, it's tainting everything.
If I'm at the front line and refuse to treat a patient, it's considered a crime. As a physician, this is my oath. I'm going to treat everyone regardless.
People would beat me up after school; they would throw names at me. Children are brutal... Being different when you're a child is always a challenge.
