By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer

March 25, 2015 -- West Africa’s Ebola outbreak had just begun its deadly march from rural villages to the capital cities of Freetown in Sierra Leone and Monrovia in Liberia when Santa Monica pediatrician Dr. Bob Hamilton decided -- reluctantly -- to pull the plug on his missionary clinic treating villager in Guinea Bassau on the continent’s west coast.

Responsible for the safety of his 40-member Lighthouse Medical Mission team, which included several young people working as helpers in the clinic, Hamilton took the step to cut short last year’s mission out of an abundance of caution, after just two days in Africa.

“When I saw it (Ebola) begin to propagate, I said, ‘We’ve got to shut it down,’” said Hamilton, who has an 18-year-old private practice in Santa Monica and has been leading medical missions to Africa since 1987.

“We had people with us who were not really prepared to handle Ebola, which is highly lethal. You can’t play with it. It was very, very sad, but we had to do it.”

Now Hamilton is returning to Africa this week to take up where he and his mission team had to abruptly leave off last year, this time venturing to Tanzania -- the Lighthouse Medical Mission’s first time in that country -- where the group of volunteer doctors, nurses and assistants will treat people in the village of Mwanza, he said.

Hamilton expects the team will see at least 1,200 people during its week-long clinic, which is linked to the Lighthouse’s Christian ministry.

This time, however, Ebola isn’t a major concern, he said.

“You have to be using common sense, not doing things foolishly. There has been no Ebola over there (in Tanzania) at all. I know that for a fact.”

Last year’s Ebola outbreak was the deadliest occurrence of the disease ever recorded, killing more than 10,170 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and infecting more than 24,700, according to updated figures released Wednesday by World Health Organization figures.

In the United States and Europe, 24 cases of Ebola were reported, most of them health workers who contracted the disease while treating patients in West Africa, the Centers for Disease Control said. One person died in the U.S. of Ebola, according to the CDC’s data.

According to the WHO, no Ebola cases have been reported in Tanzania, on Africa’s east coast.

There, on the southern edge of Lake Victoria, Hamilton and his team will spend a week treating villagers for a variety of conditions. The team departs from Los Angeles on Tuesday, March 24.

After he returns home, Hamilton will focus on organizing his annual flagship fundraiser, “Walk to Africa,” which this year will be held on Saturday, May 16, at Crescent Bay Park, 2000 Ocean Ave., in Santa Monica, beginning with registration at 8 a.m.

He hopes this year’s walk will raise $100,000 for the Lighthouse Medical Mission.

The event includes an 8-mile walk, from which the fundraiser gets its name, Hamilton said.

“If 1,000 people walk 8 miles that’s 8,000 miles, which is how far it is to Africa,” said Hamilton. “It’s like walking to Africa.”

For more information, or to register or volunteer, call 310-367-0094.

“We treat people for malaria and severe diarrhea, people with acute infections, chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, a lot of skin infections and random rashes,” he said. “We get a lot of kids -- a lot of kids.

“It’s a wonderful experience, especially for the young people we bring along,” said Hamilton. “They get to experience the real, true Africa. We’re right there with the people in the village.”