Ebola: No more 'kissing'
2007-09-21 15:29
Kinshasa - Villagers don't kiss anymore in a corner of Democratic Republic of Congo hit by the deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus.
People began falling ill in April in Kampungu, Western Kasai province, centre of an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever that had no cure or treatment and killed 50-90% of its victims.
There had been 385 suspected cases of the disease, and 174 had died, though only a handful of cases had been confirmed.
Antoine Bushambu, who worked for a Congolese human rights organisation, said: "People no longer kiss each other when they meet. They don't even shake hands. Those are the instructions the doctors have given to the population. There's been a big change in behaviour."
In the past week, several suspect cases had been reported in Kananga, the capital of Western Kasai.
9 Ebola cases confirmed
The provincial health minister of neighbouring Eastern Kasai said on Thursday that four more cases had been discovered there, raising fears that the outbreak might be spreading beyond its rural confines.
But health officials suspected that many deaths might be due to other illnesses like typhoid or Shigella, a bacterial infection.
A spokesperson for the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO), Christiana Salvi, said: "So far we have only nine confirmed cases of Ebola, but we don't really know about the rest. We want to have the correct origins of those illnesses."
Without reliable information - something the WHO hoped would change with the arrival of a high-tech mobile laboratory this weekend - health workers were struggling to staunch panic.
Josep Prior, head of Doctors without Borders (MSF) mission in the DRC, said: "There's been no public education or health education. The concept of disease in these places is so far away from the clinical one.
"This is the difference between families hiding patients and people coming in for treatment ... It's extremely important."
250 people killed
Ebola was transmitted through direct contact with blood, body fluids and tissues of infected people. Towards the latter stages, victims became highly contagious and the disease could even be transferred through contact with bodies of the dead.
After a major Ebola outbreak hit the town of Kikwit in neighbouring Bandundu province in 1995, killing 250 people, many were believed to have caught it during the traditional funeral rite of washing corpses, which led to entire families being wiped out despite awareness campaigns.
Health officials hoped this time things would be different.
DRC's health ministry had begun circulating leaflets and posters in several languages, and airing radio and television adverts. Actors were even touring remote villages staging plays that warned of the dangers of Ebola.
Salvi said: "At least it show that people know what's going on and aware of the risks."
A quarantine zone was in place and officials said the disease was largely contained in Kampungu and nearby Luebo village.
But Bushambu said people miles away in Mweka are not taking any chances and age-old village traditions are changing.
He said: "There are even those who bring their own cups to places where they drink palm wine. Before they used to share."