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Ugandans nervous about possible spread of Ebola to capital city
A health worker disinfecting the premises against Ebola
Capital FM News
by Joseph Earnest August 2, 2012
Newscast Media KAMPALA, Uganda—The deadly Ebola virus is creating fears amongst Ugandans, about its possible spread to Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. Currently the virus is confined in the western city of Kibaale, but because there was a delay to confirm the outbreak was Ebola, some carriers of the virus were not quarantined. The UK Guardian paper reported the patients fled the a hospital in western Uganda as soon as they learned the disease that had killed 14 people in the region was Ebola. (pop-up)
Strangely enough, last week while the western media was reporting that there was an Ebola outbreak in Uganda, none of the Ugandan local media mentioned anything about the virus. They were all silent. A Ugandan health official went as far as dismissing the possibility of Ebola as merely a rumor.
Hindustan Times reported that the outbreak actually began in June, (pop-up) yet it wasn't until Monday July 30, that the Ugandan media covered it. Also according to the New York Times that reported the outbreak on July 28, the Ugandan government said: "A strange disease was first reported in the area several weeks ago," according to the government’s statement.
Origin of the name Ebola
To give my readers a background of the disease, and the origin of the name Ebola, I will use this map below. The Ebola virus got its name from River Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo, which is the upper tributary of a Y-shaped river as shown below. When the virus first broke out in 1976, it was discovered in carcasses that were found in this river. Because nobody was familiar with the disease, health officials decided to name it after the river in which the virus was originally discovered.
River Ebola had carcasses that harbored the virus we now know today as the Ebola virus.
Superstition that lies behind Ebola
One of the reasons that perhaps health officials initially dismissed the Ebola outbreak as a rumor, and media did not report on it sooner, to allow suspected victims to get quarantined, is due to the deeply-embedded superstition that permeates Africa. On May 23, 1995, the Houston Chronicle reported that in Zaire (now known as Democratic Republic of Congo), people did not believe the virus existed. They thought it was some sort of a curse or black magic responsible for making people ill.
"There is no epidemic. This is a fetish," said Jean Papa, maneuvering his taxi through Kinshasa.
"They are defiant," said Dr. Betty Phongo at a Kinshasa medical clinic. "It's not that they don't believe in the disease. They do. They are afraid of it. But they don't want to admit this. They prefer to simplify it because they know they are weaker than it is. They know there is nothing they can do about it, so they prefer to say it doesn't exist," she said in this May 1995 article by the Houston Chronicle. (pop-up)
In Kibaale, the place where the outbreak first happened this year, the mentality of the residents is no different. NPR reported that some villagers started abandoning their homes to escape what they thought was an illness caused by bad luck. (pop-up)
Influx of refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo (2000, 2007 and 2012)
In 1999, the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement was signed by countries within the great lakes region that included Rwanda, Uganda and Congo. Other signatories were: Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The purpose of the agreement was to end the bloodshed taking place in DR Congo. Despite signing that agreement, tensions between Rwanda and Uganda reached a crescendo, and both countries clashed in Kisingani located within DR Congo. In February 2000 UN authorized of over 5,500 troops to contain the situation. This is a U.N. report chronicling the 2000 conflict in DR Congo also admonishes both Uganda a Rwanda for violating the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. (pop-up)
Around this time, there was a heavy influx of refugees from DR Congo into Uganda trying to escape the war. In 2000, Uganda saw its first outbreak of Ebola, in Gulu, Masindi, and Mbarara districts located in western Uganda—224 patients lost their lives. Then in 2007, the Tutsi-majority army brigades from Rwanda, fought against the Hutu Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda. This was one of the deadliest battles causing 425,000 refugees to flee their homes as reported by the New York Times. (pop-up)
During this period (2007), Uganda saw another outbreak of Ebola in the western district of Bundibugyo, in which 131 people were infected and 42 patients lost their lives according the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
*Click here to view or download Uganda map with Ebola timeline. (pop-up)
Just recently on July 10, the United Nations Refugee Agency reported that over 16,500 Congolese refugees had fled to Uganda in order to escape the war between Congolese troops and the notorious M23 rebel group. President Joseph Kabila has blamed both the Ugandan and Rwandan governments for the current conflict, alleging the two countries are supporting the M23 rebel group. The influx prompted Uganda Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi to say that the current inflow of refugees fleeing fighting in eastern DRC was straining social services in the western part of his country. (pop-up).
On July 30, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni confirmed the outbreak of Ebola in the western region. Given the correlation between Congolese entering Uganda in large numbers on three separate incidents: 2000, 2007 and 2012, one can draw the inference that there is a high likelihood that some entrants from DR Congo, may have a high resistance to Ebola, but as carriers of it, when they come in contact with Ugandans from the same region, a possible outbreak could be triggered.
How to remedy the problem
It serves no purpose to write an extensively-researched article and provide no solution. The logical solution would be to open up health centers in all districts that border DR Congo, and train health workers on how to detect possible victims affected by Ebola. This can be done by tabulating the current symptoms exhibited by patients, and then developing a handbook for every health practitioner in these clinics, or mobile health centers. Following the guidelines within the handbook, those suspected would then be safely quarantined until confirmatory lab tests reveal either the presence or absence of the virus.
Secondly, even after this wave subsides, samples of this particular strain should be researched to find any weaknesses or vulnerable aspects of the virus. How does this virus react in the presence of an alkaline solution like Sodium bicarbonate? (NaHCO3)
Does it thrive in an acidic environment when the body's pH is low? What effect would a medium-chained fatty acid like unrefined virgin coconut oil have on the outer membrane that protects the Ebola virus? These are examples of questions Ugandan researchers should consider, as they explore the vulnerabilities of the Ebola virus.
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