Neil Vora prepares for the two-and-half hour drive to Bomi County in Liberia.

Ambulance chasing is a discouraged practice in the United States—but in Liberia it’s exactly what Neil Vora, a CDC responder, had to do as part of his efforts to stop the spread of Ebola at its source.

“We would follow ambulances that were called to pick up patients with suspected Ebola cases. We would keep our distance and observe how they collected patients and would make corrections to any lapse in infection control. As soon as the ambulance left we would start the contact tracing investigation,” said Neil. Neil recently returned from a month working in Liberia, during which time he was based in Bomi County, a rural area about two hours away from Liberia’s capital.

Rapidly identifying contacts of patients with Ebola is a key component to stopping the spread of the virus. Each patient with Ebola can have 10 or more contacts, all of whom need to be monitored for 21 days. “If you skip just one day, it might be the day the contact comes down with Ebola and a whole new chain of Ebola transmission can start all over again,” Neil said.

More than 100 Ebola cases were identified in Bomi County, and while Neil was there, he helped local health officials monitor the hundreds of contacts from all of these Ebola cases.