As Ebola rages in countryside, Congo’s capital strives to carry on.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
By JUSTIN MAKANGARA and JOHN ELIGON
Nations around the world are imposing strict entry restrictions on people who have been to Congo recently because of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the country’s northeast.
But in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, most of the 20 million residents are carrying on as usual.
Open-air markets where vendors sell cassava, fish, fruit and clothes remained packed. Workers crammed into taxis or hopped on their motorcycles for morning commutes on the heavily congested roads. Patios and bars were full of patrons drinking beer and eating grilled chicken with mayo.
“I don’t know and don’t see why we should be afraid,” Malula Richard Esambo, president of a soccer fan group in Kinshasa, said at an event in the city this month organized by the Congolese Football Association. “Kinshasa is safe for now.”
Spanning more than 900,000 square miles, Congo is nearly six times the size of California. The distance between the center of the Ebola outbreak, Ituri province in the northeast, and Kinshasa is roughly 950 miles, about the distance to Orlando, Florida, from New York.
And there is not much travel between Kinshasa and Ituri because of poor roads, reducing the likelihood of the outbreak spreading to the capital, said Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
That is why, de Oliveira said, the United States would be better served by supporting the affected countries in order to stem the outbreak at its source, rather than “establish a travel ban or isolation of all patients who come from such a large country.”
“I don’t think that’s a good public health response,” he added.
Still, some public health experts warn that because the virus spread unchecked for weeks, faraway places may not yet be in the clear. There is no vaccine for this species of the virus, called Bundibugyo, and health officials are still struggling to set up clinics in Bunia, the capital of Ituri.
On Friday, the governor of Ituri banned gatherings of more than 50 people and suspended a soccer match in Bunia. And on Saturday, Congo’s government announced that it was banning all air travel in and out of Bunia, and that aid flights would require special authorization.
So far, there have been 177 suspected deaths and about 750 suspected cases of the virus, which has spread into Uganda and South Sudan. If it were to reach a megacity like Kinshasa, which has a population of about 20 million people, it could present significant challenges because its dense urban environment and large population offer ripe conditions for rapid spread.
What eases the minds of many Congolese is the fact that they have been here before.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the country since the virus was discovered 50 years ago. For all of the challenges that Congo might have, its health authorities are well experienced in responding to Ebola.
“Here, people think it doesn’t concern Kinshasa,” said Christine Nlandu, 37, a vendor at a suburban market. “They think it’s a far-off story.”
Petronella Mugoni, a social and behavioral public health researcher who has worked in Congo, said she feared that some in Kinshasa had become complacent about Ebola because the city had not been heavily affected by previous outbreaks.
It is crucial for the government to step up its targeted public health information about Ebola, she said. But that can be difficult in a city where there are so many diseases that kill more people annually than Ebola has, and residents face an overload of health information, she said.
It may also be hard for many people in Kinshasa to focus on Ebola prevention when they have to rely on informal work in order to feed their families, Mugoni said.
“Even in the midst of challenges, earning money takes precedence,” she said. “Closing markets down would be more catastrophic than Ebola for many.”
But residents of Goma, another major city, are not taking the Ebola outbreak lightly. Goma is the largest city in the eastern part of the country, and there is a lot of travel between Goma and Ituri. On top of that, Goma is currently under the control of M23, a rebel group.
“I am overwhelmed by the news,” said Joëlle Koko Zihindula, 28, a youth worker in Goma. “It is depressing, how the situation is all mixed with conflicts.”
The Congolese government has posted a message on social media stressing “the importance of adhering to preventive measures in response to the Ebola outbreak declared in Ituri.”
But there have been no public awareness campaigns targeting Kinshasa. There are no bans on large gatherings. Schools remain open.
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