THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180727
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: KIKWIT, ZAIRE LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Despite the struggle to contain the Ebola virus, Zaire's president said Wednesday that people cannot be prevented from leaving the city where the disease was concentrated.
``Those who are in quarantine are not under arrest, and since they are not under arrest they can sometimes escape and do what they want,'' President Mobutu Sese Seko said.
The president spoke while visiting a warehouse to see medical supplies donated by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson of Virginia Beach.
Robertson was traveling in Africa and went to Zaire ``to see what could be done in the way of humanitarian aid,'' said Gene Kapp, vice president of public relations for the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Robertson's private, for-profit company, the African Development Co., donated 10 tons of medical supplies, including disposable syringes and rehydration salts, to help Ebola victims, Kapp said. The supplies were stored and transported by Robertson's relief group, Operation Blessing, Kapp said.
Robertson formed the African Development Co. to explore investments in such industries as lumber, mining and power generation, with plans to use the profits for humanitarian efforts.
Operation Blessing is diverting a large portion of its medical supplies to Kikwit, the center of the Ebola outbreak, the group's spokeswoman, Sharon Gabriel, said. Catholic relief workers take the supplies into Kikwit.
Also, the group is collecting more supplies - masks, gowns and gloves - in its Chesapeake warehouse to ship to Zaire.
There are no plans for Operation Blessing medical workers to visit Kikwit. Public health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have better protective equipment for dealing with Ebola, which is particularly contagious to people treating the sick.
Authorities are trying to control who goes into and out of Kikwit, a city of 600,000. They fear the virus will spread and reach Kinshasa, the capital 370 miles to the west.
Ebola has killed at least 87 people, including one who died Wednesday, and five others are infected, said Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, a professor of microbiology at Kinshasa University. He is in Kikwit overseeing medical services.
There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola, which is spread through body fluids and kills 80 percent of those who come into contact with it.
Mobutu said he wanted to go to Kikwit, but his doctors had forbidden it. ``The responsibility of a chief is to show solidarity with his people and to be strong with his people,'' he said.
The World Health Organization expects a significant rise in the number of victims soon because of the disease's incubation period, which ranges from six days to three weeks, spokesman Philippe Stroot said Wednesday in Geneva.
A 20-bed isolation unit was set up Tuesday in Kinshasa's Ngaliema Hospital in case Ebola reaches the capital city. MEMO: Staff writer Esther Diskin contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko, accompanied by Virginia Beach
religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, right, discusses the Ebola
situation in Kinshasa on Wednesday.
KEYWORDS: PAT ROBERTSON ZAIRE by CNB