First published June 22nd 2014, 12:03 pm
An "out of control" outbreak of
Ebola in West Africa that’s being called the deadliest ever is far from
over and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better, experts
predict.
And health workers who
have been fighting the outbreak, which spans three countries and has
killed more than 300 people, say they are certain many cases are going
unreported as they see gruesome infections, dangerous myths and people
fleeing the virus, potentially spreading it further.
Dr.
Mwayabo Kazadi, from the health unit for Catholic Relief Services,
agreed that many cases could go uncounted and undiagnosed in the region,
where Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia come together.
“When you don’t have a proper health system in place, it is pretty difficult,” Kazadi said.
Garry says team members
arrived in at least one village to find it deserted, and the body of an
Ebola victim left unattended in a house. It’s not hard to imagine what
happened, but it makes it impossible to track down people who might have
been infected and get them to hospitals for what care can be provided,
and to prevent them from infecting others.
A Doctors Without Borders official said Friday that the outbreak was out of control.
And the numbers make it
clear this is the biggest outbreak yet of Ebola since the virus was
first identified in 1976. The virus, which causes a particularly nasty
form of hemorrhagic fever, has killed 337 people out of 528 infected.
“This is the biggest
outbreak we have ever actually seen of Ebola,” Kazadi said. “It’s the
biggest both in numbers and in terms of geography,” Garry agreed.
Jonathan Paye-Layleh / AP
The biggest outbreak affected 425 people in Uganda in 2000, killing 224 of them.
Ebola is spread in
bodily fluids, and the worst stages of the disease make that
frighteningly easy. “People are throwing up. They have diarrhea,” Garry
said. Patients can develop tiny blood hemorrhages on their skin and in
their eyes.
At least a dozen women
were infected by a healer, probably as they washed and kissed her body
when she died of Ebola and they were preparing her for her funeral. The
case illustrates just why this outbreak is so difficult to fight.
The healer, who used
snakes as part of her practice, made some frightening and dire
predictions from her death bed. “She said she was going to release the
snakes and said anybody who saw the snakes would die the way she did,”
Garry said.
This frightened some of
the people in her village, and they attacked some volunteers from
Garry’s team, throwing rocks at their vehicle.
AHMED JALLANZO / EPA
Garry's back in the U.S.
for a few days trying to scrape up funding to buy protective gear for
health care workers. The WHO and other groups are also providing such
gear, but it's getting spread thin.
If workers start
re-using gloves, gowns or goggles, they could end up spreading the
virus. There's no cure and no vaccine, and the outbreak is killing 60
percent of its victims.
Volunteers are trying to get the word out about how the virus is spread, but it’s tricky getting the message right.
“People have been
resisting the idea that it was just not some type of curse or spirit. Or
that it’s people trying to keep them from eating bush meat,” Garry
said.
One suspicion was that
people initially got Ebola by eating bush meat — apes, monkeys, bats,
and rodents slaughtered for food. That’s how experts now believe the
AIDS virus first started circulating among people and it’s possible
Ebola originated there, too.
But now it’s spread
mostly person-to-person, Garry said. “The only thing that people hear is
‘Don’t eat bushmeat.’ It just gets people riled up. It’s not a useful
message.”
ISSOUF SANOGO / AFP - Getty Images
The porous borders in the
area make things difficult, also. People, many of them in the same
ethnic groups, pass freely from one country to another.
Genetic testing makes
it clear this particular Ebola outbreak is being caused by a local
strain that arose in West Africa. Ebola had only been seen in central
Africa before, but the discovery suggests that the virus had been
circulating undetected before. Hemorrhagic fevers are common in Africa —
Garry’s team was originally in Sierra Leone to study and fight another
virus, one that causes Lassa fever.
“We’re probably finding (Ebola) now because we are looking for it,” he said.
Bats are another
suspected source. Bats carry hundreds of viruses and carry antibodies to
Ebola, which suggests they can be infected. Bat meat could be one
source, but so could bat spit.
“It’s mango season. The bats are eating the mangoes and the people are eating the mangoes,” Garry said.
It’s not an unusual
idea. Researchers tracking Middle East Respiratory Syndrome virus or
MERS are also checking the theory that fruit-eating bats may spread that
virus in their saliva.
