Deadly delusions

The Ebola outbreak in Congo is now in one of its biggest cities — but even more worrying is that some Congolese do not believe the disease exists. A photo essay of a global health emergency,

They made their way through the thick forest like astronauts carrying a fallen comrade. Their booted steps were slow and deliberate as if they walked on the moon. A few men waited by a freshly dug grave, checking their smartphones. Without ceremony, the body of Mussa Kathembo was lowered into the ground.

This is the eastern Congo, epicentre of the latest affliction in this war-ravaged part of the world: Ebola. Kathembo was one of the more than1,700 victims of the nearly yearlong outbreak of the disease. This month, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency after a pastor became the first confirmed Ebola case in the major city of Goma. With a population of more than two million people, some fear the outbreak will start spreading rapidly.

However, many people in the original outbreak area do not believe Ebola exits. Unfamiliar with the disease, they blame witchcraft, politicians and foreigners for the deaths. That makes things difficult and dangerous for those working to contain the outbreak. And once someone is infected, it is often too late.

When Kathembo fell ill, he was taken from his house to the Ebola treatment centre, a maze of white tents and plastic isolation pods on the grounds of Beni’s hospital. As he and his wife, who also fell ill, received emergency treatment from health workers dressed head-to-toe in haz-mat suits, their house was quickly turned into a vaccination centre by local health authorities and the World Health Organization.

There, relatives, neighbours and anyone else who might have come into contact with the couple stood in line to receive the experimental but effective Ebola vaccine. Reaching everyone was the goal, but tracing contacts is a challenge in Beni, where people are known to ride five to a motorcycle-taxi or squeeze 30 passengers into a 10-seat van.

Back at the treatment centre, 24-year-old Ivette, a mother of four, slowly recovered from Ebola as she mourned the loss of her husband, Salomon.

In a nearby isolation cube, Kathembo exhaled one last time. The heart monitor went silent and his body was wrapped in cloth and plastic before being taken to the cemetery in the forest outside town.

Asiya, his wife, also died. But their 2-month-old daughter, Lahya, tested negative for Ebola and will survive.

JEROME DELAY PHOTOS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photography: Jerome Delay, The Associated Press Health workers wearing protective gear check on Ivette Adania, 24, a mother of four whose husband died of Ebola, at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, Congo, on July 13.

A woman waits at the morgue for the body of her relative to be cleared for burial in Beni. A state of emergency was declared in the eastern Congo city of Goma.

Health workers carry a patient suspected of suffering from Ebola into an isolation cube at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni. More than 1,700 people in eastern Congo have died as the virus has spread in areas too dangerous for health teams to access.