In Congo, a new and less isolating Ebola treatment centre

Now one aid group for the first time is treating confirmed Ebola victims in what is called the CUBE, individual biosecure units used in emergencies involving highly infectious diseases. ALIMA (The Alliance For International Medical Action) runs the 18-bed centre in Beni.

The cubicles, which have been used in outbreaks of Lassa fever in Nigeria and Marburg in Uganda, allow the treatment of Ebola to be more social for worried families, said Dr. Oummani Rouafi, ALIMA’s medical co-ordinator.

“It is very much unlike other centres where civilians cannot enter the treatment tents or approach what we call the ‘red zone,’” said Claude Mahoudeau, the organization’s emergency response co-ordinator in Beni.

With the cubicles, health workers can largely operate without the protective equipment that posed a sweaty, humid challenge in the devastating West Africa outbreak in 2014-2016, instead treating patients via external arm holes.

Of the 16 confirmed Ebola cases treated at the centre, four people have recovered, four remain in treatment and eight have died. Overall the outbreak in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces has seen 100 confirmed Ebola cases, including 58 deaths.

Health workers are tracking thousands of contacts of people and trying to persuade residents to use safe burial and other practices to limit the virus spread by the fluids of infected people.

The World Health Organization has expressed optimism that the efforts are working, but worries remain that the virus could spread into areas of active attacks by armed groups where it is unsafe to operate.

The threat was made clear Monday when suspected Allied Democratic Forces rebels killed a civilian close to a base of the U.N. peacekeeping mission near Beni. Djamali Mussa, head of civil society in the community of Mavivi, condemned the attack and called for more security for health workers.

At the new Ebola treatment centre, fears about the hemorrhagic fever are calmed to some degree as family members pull up moulded plastic chairs to the cubicles and even hold up small children to say hello.

While Mulanda said he likes the approach, he is eager to bring his wife home.

“We’ve been married for six years and it’s difficult to be alone and do the chores alone,” he said.

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Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

In Congo, a new and less isolating Ebola treatment centre

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