(21 Oct 2019) LEAD IN: A motorcyclist and Ebola survivor is helping doctors overcome the local suspicions and fear which block their efforts to quarantine and treat patients with the deadly virus in Congo.
There have been 3114 cases of Ebola since the outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in August last year, the virus has killed two thirds of the patients and the World Health Organisation has agreed the epidemic should continue to be treated as an international public health emergency.
STORY-LINE:
At a specialised Ebola Alert Centre in Beni members of the team log details of every case of suspected Ebola.
This is the first is the difficult steps which follow to persuade people to allow their sick loved ones to be taken from their family to a treatment centre for testing.
According Dr. Muhindo Muyisa who leads the response team, staff here take more than 150 alerts about potential cases each day.
They intervene in more than ninety percent of the times where people refuse to go to centres to be tested for the virus.
Until now they've only been able to send ambulances, or other official vehicles.
"Generally in order to evacuate the patients, the confirmed cases, there are investigators who after they've discussed things with the patient, there are patients who accept to come by on a motorbike ambulance, or in a regular ambulance. In some cases, we get confirmed cases and the patients resist coming by a regular ambulance, and in some circumstances they prefer to choose the motorbike ambulances. In these cases where there is resistance to (the idea of) coming by ambulance, or there are particular preferences for one rather than the other, that's when we use these means we have at our disposal," says Muyisa.
Health workers here have found sending a local person like Germain Kalubenge on a motorbike helps allay the fears of local people, who feel less intimidated.
Community resistance and insecurity have been the major challenges standing in the way of stemming the impact of Ebola.
This is the first time Ebola has been confirmed in this part of Congo, and rumors quickly spread in Beni, an early epicenter of the outbreak, that the virus had been imported to kill the population.
The community has been traumatized by years of deadly rebel attacks and is wary of authorities, blaming them for the insecurity that has killed nearly 2,000 people since late 2014.
They don't always see healthworkers, but people covered from head to foot in protective clothing.
The protective clothing is vital to protect the healthworkers, but having relatives taken away in jeeps by these people can be scary and counterproductive.
Today Kalubenge gets another call for a ride on his motorcycle. The calls when they come are usually a matter of life or death.
This time the 23-year-old Ebola survivor is transporting a woman to a centre where she can be tested for the virus.
As a survivor of Ebola Kalubenge is immune to Ebola, so when he saw the community's resistance he decided to help.
Kalubenge and some other people like him are often the only drivers the fearful and mistrusting community will trust. Especially if they suspect they, or their family may be infected.
Kalumbenge wakes each morning at five o'clock ready for the task in hand.
He believes the community is afraid of ambulances and suspect that if they get into an ambulance, doctors will inject them with toxins and they will die before they even arrive at the hospital.
Find out more about AP Archive:
Twitter:
Facebook:
Google+:
Tumblr:
Instagram:
You can license this story through AP Archive:
0 Comments