A quarantined site. Photo submitted by Larry Sthreshley
PDA has provided funds from One Great Hour of Sharing to respond to an outbreak of the Ebola virus, possibly the largest yet, that has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
186 deaths have been registered in hospitals or clinics, but it is possible that many are dying without being counted.
Ebola — known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever — is a severe, often-fatal disease in humans that has appeared sporadically since its initial recognition in 1976, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The disease is caused by infection with Ebola virus, named after a river in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it was first recognized.
PC(USA) Mission worker Larry Sthreshley and Bill Clemmer, an American Baptist Churches mission worker who is head of SANRU (the Programme de Santé Rurale, or Rural Health Program), are working closing with the CDC in an effort to confront this recent Ebola outbreak.
The Atlanta-based CDC has been asked to establish a central lab and base to set up a diagnostic test for Ebola. This is essential, as everyone with a fever will not have Ebola; yet those who are positive need to be isolated.
Ebola is extremely contagious. An MSF (Doctors without Borders) nurse was tearfully recounting the story of a Congolese nurse she worked with for the past two weeks; the nurse, a health care worker who took basic precautions, is now in active stages of the disease (and dying). The nurse decided to stay in her home rather than go to the clinic, and MSF had to send a jeep to her house to take her away, knowing that many of her family members had cared for her.
The CDC asked for SANRU's assistance because the three epicenters of the outbreak are located around health districts where SANRU is involved and because of SANRU’s relationship with church structures that are co-managing the hospitals and health centers in the affected health districts.
Luebo Presbyterian Hospital has been chosen as the site where a team of 10-12 scientists will set up the lab and do the testing. Protection material is being provided to the hospital. Medical Benevolence Foundation is also assisting with vehicles needed to move around the area.
Katherine Niles visited Bulape on behalf of Interchurch Medical Assistance World Health (IMAWH). She has written a reflection about her September 2007 visit. [Read more] |
