Every day, Didier François deals with an international topic.
One year to the day after the outbreak of the last Ebola outbreak in the Republic of Congo, the situation continues to deteriorate. To the point that Rwanda has decided to close its border for a few hours on Thursday to try to curb the spread of the virus.
A measure more symbolic than prophylactic but that responds to a real concern throughout Central Africa and especially the Great Lakes region. Because there is indeed a year that the patient zero (the first patient of this new epidemic) was diagnosed. It was on August 1st, 2018, in a very small isolated dispensary in a forest area in the province of North Kivu. Only twelve months later, far from being contained, the virus has already infected more than 2,500 people and killed more than 1,800 patients. In constant increase since May, it has spread to the Congolese province of Ituri and to neighboring Uganda. An epidemiological situation of great concern to the point that the World Health Organization proclaimed a fortnight ago (July 17) "a state of global health emergency" to mobilize more financial means to fight against the disease.
It is in this context that three new cases were diagnosed in the city of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu but above all an extremely important economic center of exchange for all the north of the Congo, on the border of Rwanda. With a permanent population of more than a million inhabitants but which can rise to two million with the passage of people from the bush, so more likely to carry the germ. You imagine the disaster if the health authorities fail to control the spread of the epidemic in such a home.
Because the Ebola virus has a very high rate of contagion and is terribly deadly ?
That's the problem! The disease is transmitted to humans by forest animals such as fruit bats, fruit bats found throughout Central Africa. It is growing extremely fast. The incubation period is from two days to two weeks. The average is five days, it is really very virulent and deadly lethal since more than half of the infected patients will die and there is no cure known so far, only vaccines in the experimental stage and in very insufficient numbers. The only solution is to isolate the infected patients in quarantine structures, with traffic bans. This is obviously very badly accepted by local populations especially in remote areas where survival depends on its mobility, be it in terms of economics for hunting, agriculture, trade or because it is necessary to flee before The other major difficulty is that the bodies of Ebola victims must be cremated to prevent the spread, which is in total contradiction with local animist rites. This practice has led to a movement of mistrust towards doctors of humanitarian organizations, sometimes targeted by some communities that hide their patients, which does not make it particularly easy to eradicate the virus.