Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505120056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``I get a sense that the whole community is rising up, and I think we're going to see a very rapid end to this,'' said Ralph Henderson, assistant director general of the World Health Organization in an interview Thursday from Geneva.
Scientists working with the Zairian government reported Thursday that there are far fewer cases of the highly fatal Ebola virus than previously reported - but added that some patients appear to have fled the hospital where the outbreak began, potentially spreading the disease.
The medical team that arrived two days ago in Kikwit, a city of some 400,000 east of the Zairian capital of Kinshasa, said 49 people had contracted the disease, and 27 had died so far. Ebola virus kills up to 90 percent of its victims. Its symptoms include fever, vomiting, destruction of the body's organs and bleeding from the eyes, nose and other orifices.
``There is enormous confusion about what all of these numbers mean,'' Henderson said. Scientists said Thursday that the higher numbers of cases and fatalities reported earlier might be attributable to the presence of other diseases such as shigella infection, which causes bloody diarrhea (a symptom also seen in Ebola virus infection).
The outbreak appears to have begun among medical personnel in surgery and on the wards of Kikwit's main hospital, where an abdominal operation was performed last month on a patient who apparently had contracted Ebola virus. Scientists theorize that contact with the patient's blood could have initially spread the disease, but that the infection was also transmitted by reusing infected needles without proper sterilization.
``It might not be as bad in the hospital as I imagined - but it's plenty bad enough,'' Henderson said.
Richard LeClair of WHO said virtually all new cases have occurred in people who had prolonged contact with infected patients, some of whom have spread the disease to family members. The other three sites where the disease has been detected - a second Kikwit hospital and Masongo and Yassa/Bonga hospitals - all appear to have received hemorrhagic fever patients transferred from Kikwit, who then exposed others, LeClair said. Masongo is about 60 miles west of Kikwit on the road to Kinshasa. It could not be determined Thursday where Yassa/Bonga hospital was located.
The scientists on site in Kikwit sent a report back to WHO Thursday that said, ``patient isolation has been difficult because of lack of resources'' but the government of Zaire and relief teams were working rapidly to identify new cases and contain the outbreak. The international team is also attempting to attract the patients who fled back to the hospital by setting up an isolation facility offering special treatment and food.
Once those patients are isolated, officials said, Ebola is unlikely to spread farther. Unlike highly infectious viruses such as measles, which are transmitted by airborne droplets, Ebola requires close contact. Henderson said patients fled hospitals during previous Ebola outbreaks, but that the disease nevertheless did not spread over large areas.
The medical team also contradicted earlier reports that the city of Kikwit was under complete quarantine. The city is still accessible and its airport is still receiving its single flight of the day, WHO officials said.
However, the governor of Kinshasa issued orders barring all movement of people into the capital from Bandundu, the affected region, Reuters reported.
A third nun working in Kikwit died Thursday. Nuns of the Italian-based Poverelle order, or Little Sisters of the Poor, worked as nurses in the area.
Bob Howard, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control, said that the fluctuating fatality figures are caused by the remote locale and poor communications.
by CNB