Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
On heels of Ebola, COVID-19 skulks
Congo’s pathogen fight has to ramp up again
BENI, Congo — For more than 18 months, Congo has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands of people, and now it must also face a new scourge: the coronavirus pandemic.
Ebola has left those living in the country’s east weary and fearful, and just as they were preparing to declare an end to the outbreak, a new case popped up. Now, they will now have to manage both threats at once.
The new virus has overwhelmed some of the world’s best hospital systems in Europe and ripped through communities in New York.
In Congo, it could spread unchecked in a country that has endured decades of conflict, where corruption has left the population largely impoverished despite mineral wealth, and where mistrust of authority is so entrenched that health workers have been killed during the Ebola outbreak.
“It all feels like one big storm,” said Martine Milonde, a Congolese community mobilizer who works with the aid group World Vision in Beni, which has been the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. “Truly, this is a crisis within a crisis within a crisis. The community suffers from insecurity, and suffered under Ebola, and now may have to face COVID-19.”
In early March, an Ebola patient whom many hoped would be the last was discharged, and the outbreak was supposed to be officially declared over Sunday. But the World Health Organization on Friday announced a new case in Beni.
Still, there is some hope. Many of the tools used to fight Ebola, hand-washing and social distancing chief among them, are also key to combating the coronavirus.
In Beni, which has reported two cases of the new coronavirus, “the communities here hold onto some hope that they are going to overcome this pandemic the way they had been working to overcome Ebola,” said Milonde. “They are counting on the caution, vigilance and hygiene practices that they have been performing to save their families.”
Community advocates in Beni have started to issue warnings about the new coronavirus.
Messages explaining COVID-19 and where to go if sick are being spread. Schools, churches and mosques are already armed with hand-washing kits.
Unlike Ebola, which kills about half of the people it infects, the new coronavirus causes mostly mild or moderate symptoms in about 80 percent of people.
Dr. Michel Yao, program manager for emergency response at the WHO’s Africa office, said implementing robust testing and contact tracing will be key. But getting the community fully involved in fighting the disease might be even more important.