When Infected fleeing rebels

First it was pain just the abdomen, then diarrhoea, which plagued her son Elvis. Nothing Out Of The Ordinary. But Annie Madelene Fakundaye, 30 years old, the mother of three children, immediately thought of Ebola. She had already heard how dangerous disease is noticeable. You brought Elvis into the nearest hospital and had him test. “When I found out that he has Ebola,” she recalls, “I began to violently tremble.”

Elvis was from the clinic of men picked up, which had a creepy mother and son: they wore masks, goggles, gloves and rubber boots. Fakundaye was aware of the fact that the clothing is intended to protect the men in front of the highly contagious Virus. They even put in their usual attire, unprotected. You sent your son with the Stranger.

They inject a lethal dose?

Not all people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to give the helpers as much confidence as Fakundaye. The haggard woman standing in front of their small, stone hut no bigger than a Garage, which she shares with her husband and children. Her little son, Elvis brother, not leaving her side. He clings to the mother and holds on to the orange cloth that has been tied to a long skirt.

Fakundaye has even been against the Virus is to vaccinate. The have dared just a few from their neighborhood. The rumor went around, told Fakundaye, “they would come to spray the sick with a deadly dose”.

Fakundaye lives with her family in Beni, in the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. About one Million people inhabit the city, which is surrounded by jungle. The Region is a crisis area. From the North and East, the so-called ADF rebels (Allied Democratic Forces). The Islamists have their origins in the resistance against Yoweri Musveni, for 23 years, President of neighboring Uganda. They have no clear political Agenda.

From the South, the so-called Mai-Mai militias, invade the city, kill people, or kidnap, plunder houses, and burn the place down. About 2500 people are you fallen in the past four years, to the victim.

The vaccine could be much more helpful

Now the Region is struggling with the addition of an Ebola outbreak. Since August, more than 140 people in Beni at Ebola died. One counts the victims in the surrounding towns and villages, there are cases of more than 368 death.

Ebola is extremely dangerous: About 60 percent of the outbreak in the Congo Sufferers did not survive the infection. Thanks to a new vaccine, the Containment of the disease could be much easier than four years ago in West Africa, as more than 11,000 people at Ebola died. However, the General situation in Beni complicates the work of the medical assistant enormously.


The Ebola is

The Ebola Virus is transmitted through body fluids such as sweat, vomit, or blood. The more the disease has progressed, the greater is the risk that a Diseased are the Virus. Particularly infectious, with the body fluids of the Deceased. An infection is often fatal. Ill get a high fever. You vomit and have extreme diarrhea, so you lose dangerous much liquid. Also internal bleeding can occur. For a successful Containment of the disease, it is necessary that all the people track, the contact with Sufferers had to watch and to isolate in case of signs of the disease.


Annie Fakundaye fighting for your family. You sent your son so that he gets a therapy. You must register and the syringe, the doctor Stéphane Hans Bateyi great hope.

The doctor of the Congolese Ministry of health is coordinating the vaccination program. He sends medical Teams in the district. There you build up, the police protects, the pavilions, where they vaccinate people against Ebola. The offer is aimed primarily at people who have come with Ebola patients in contact, as well as the health personnel themselves.

“The vaccination has a major impact, because it binds to the infection chain of the disease,” says the doctor.

Approximately 50,000 doses have been administered, the team of Bateyi in the past few months. However, often people who have been infected may are not discoverable, because they fled after an attack to their houses or apartments.

A neighbor was killed

Two weeks ago, the quarter Boikene had been attacked, far from the headquarters of the Ebola coordination, told Bethie Batsotse. The 20-year-old student of agricultural Sciences, lived there with her mother and her siblings. In Jogging pants, she sits on a stool on the lawn, washes fruits. Attacks, there were always, she says. You then hear shots and explosions. “The last attack was right next to our house.” A neighbor was killed.

She tells her story in the quiet garden of their oldest sister in a neighborhood in the relatively safe West of the city, where she now lives. On the question of whether you have to tithe enough space in the house, she replies with a Laugh. But it was even worse. “Because the ADF attack usually at night or early in the morning, many people during the day in our neighborhood, but to spend the night to Sleep in the centre.” Some would even Stay not fixed, would come with family members, time with friends or with Strangers, if necessary, also with 20 people crowded in a small apartment.

Even the health workers flee

For doctor Justus Nsio, the Situation is a nightmare. “Even the health workers and the sick flee from such a place,” says Congolese physician, the coordinates in Beni use of Teams. “On a day like this you can’t find the Infected, the more people infected,” Nsio, despite the tropical temperatures, a vest that makes him as an employee of the Ministry of health identified. Also the day after an attack a use of is often inconceivable – because of protests and mourning rites.

Sometimes even the medical staff itself is being attacked: In November, for example, the rebels approached the Hotel of forces. Although they were beaten back by the army, coincided with the release of the decision to bring the experts temporarily in the provincial capital of Goma.

Who dies on days of Ebola, is often buried under the professional guidance of experts and in accordance with strict hygiene rules, but traditionally. Then Mourners touch the corpse. This custom is, during an Ebola outbreak, life-threatening, because the Dead are highly contagious.

In the following three weeks the number of new Ebola cases, increases Nsio complains. His team must then again to the Infected with search – in a neighborhood where people are often on the run. “You’re day-to-day, but the Person is not there,” he resigned.

While armored vehicles of the UN Mission “Monuscu rolling on the streets again and again” and the use of past troops of the Congolese army on the population. But the citizens of Benis feel abandoned and not safe in your city. “We suffer so much,” says Annie Fakundaye, the mother of the diseased Elvis. The fear of war for many is more tangible than the before Ebola: “From one Moment to the other someone can come and kill you,” says Fakundaye. “Is this a normal life?”

Nsio, therefore, has a grim forecast: If the security in the city is not guaranteed, is to continue, the Ebola outbreak is still long, fear of the doctor.