Mbandaka adapts to life under Ebola

MBANDAKA: In the city of Mbandaka in northwest Congo, Mbombo Roge does not shake hands with friends any more: Ebola changed all that.

Mr Roge simply bowed when he met a group of acquaintances on Saturday afternoon, obeying one of the key lessons taught by health officials since an outbreak of the deadly virus was confirmed in the city of 1.5 million people last week.

“Ebola doesn’t forgive,” said Mr Roge on a street in the center of Mbandaka. “We just greet each other with words so as to not get contaminated”.

The outbreak of Ebola in Congo, the vast central African country’s ninth since the disease made its first known appearance near the northern Ebola river in the 1970s, is believed to have cost the lives of 25 people since April.

The outbreak is dwarfed by the epidemic which killed over 11,300 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2016, but it brings with it some worrying echoes.

The first confirmed case in Mbandaka on Thursday raised concerns it could spread much faster than in the rural areas where it had previously been detected.

Mbandaka, a crowded trading hub on the banks of the Congo River where people live in close proximity, has roads, water and air links to the capital Kinshasa, whose population is 10 million.

Since Thursday, three other cases have been confirmed in Mbandaka. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a “very high” public health risk to the country since those cases were detected. Over 4,000 vaccines are expected to be deployed to the region this week.

The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person, who suffers severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhea.

Changes in Mbandaka so far have been subtle but they point to a growing trepidation. One such example is seen at the regional airport where health inspectors check passengers for fever.