New Avera Doctor to Work on African Ebola Outbreak

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — An intensive care doctor from Ohio joining the Avera McKennan staff in Sioux Falls is delaying his arrival so he can travel to West Africa and try to help block the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

David Porembka plans to start seeing patients next week in Sierra Leone, one of four countries on Africa's Atlantic coast where an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,060 people.

Porembka expects to be in Sierra Leone up to 10 weeks and then move to Sioux Falls by late fall.

Porembka is going to Africa as an independent consultant. His connection is through the World Health Organization, which provided him with a letter of introduction to officials in Sierra Leone.

Porembka tells the Argus Leader that it's "a chance of a lifetime."

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