Fear and suspicion hinder Congo medics in Ebola battle
Aaron Ross
Reuters.com
MAY 25, 2018
DAKAR (Reuters) – With more than twice as many Ebola outbreaks as any other country since the virus was discovered in 1976, Congolese are familiar with its destructive power, yet fear and suspicion of medical authorities are still hindering efforts at containment.
Health officials say they are working hard to get out accurate information about the deadly hemorrhagic fever but face significant mistrust in a part of Africa where many place more faith in clerics in white collars than doctors in white coats.
A doctor and a nursing sister were threatened by locals after they were accused of bringing the disease to their communities, while people in one town prevented medics from testing the body of someone suspected to have died from Ebola, officials said.
“The information campaign is being put in place but is still insufficient,” Medecins Sans Frontieres’ (MSF) emergency medical coordinator Jean-Clement Cabrol told reporters in Geneva on Thursday.
“Religious and traditional leaders in communities are not being used enough,” he said.
Congo’s government, the World Health Organization (WHO) and aid agencies are racing to contain what could be the most dangerous of Democratic Republic of Congo’s nine epidemics since it was discovered by northern Congo’s eponymous river four decades ago.
Its appearance in the northwestern river port city of Mbandaka this time gives it a potential clear shot at the capital Kinshasa, a chaotic city of more than 10 million inhabitants that lies downstream. Since April, the disease is thought to have killed at least 22 people and infected 30 more.
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