The Hot Zone

A group of men dressed in space-suit-like outfits, cautiously throw a dead body into a grave, they pause only to toss in anything else they are wearing that came into contact with the deceased. There are no religious or traditional burial rites, no ceremony, no mourning, no family members, and no final goodbyes. It looks like a scene from the 1994 non-fiction thriller "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston about viral hemorrhagic fevers particularly about ebolaviruses and marbugviruses.

This is a true picture of what is happening on a daily basis, in Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Liberia. It is the story of Ebola, a deadly viral disease that is slowing creeping across borders, and sneaking silently through checkpoints undetected.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) or Ebola is an infectious and generally fatal disease marked by fever and severe internal bleeding, spread through contact with infected body fluids by a filo virus (Ebola virus). There is no known cure.

According to the WHO, Ebola has killed over two thousand people and infected an estimated four thousand since the outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013. A figure which is growing at an alarming rate, and which both the WHO and the UN believe are vastly under-estimated. Ebola has now spread to Sierra-Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and most recently Senegal.

As I follow the news daily, I think about the victims, the ones under surveillance, those under quarantine, but most especially the dead. I read the interview of Dennis Akagha, the fiance of the first Nigerian Ebola victim, Justina Ejelonu. He recounted in chilling details her final days, the terrible conditions at the quarantine centre in Yaba, her slow and painful death, and his own miraculous recovery from the dreaded disease which he contracted while caring for her.

Patrick Sawyer, the index case from Liberia, was admitted at First Consultant Hospital on July 20th, the next day was Justina`s first day at work, Sawyer was her first patient. The 30 year old nurse had a lot to be excited about, her new job at this hospital, her forth coming wedding in October, her two months old pregnancy. She was carrying their first child. She succumbed to the disease which she had contracted from Sawyer three weeks later.

In a small village in far away Liberia, most of the houses have been abandoned, their doors padlocked and windows shuttered. The empty houses belonged to people who either died of Ebola or those who fled in terror, for fear of contracting the virus. Some of the residents abandoned the town in such a hurry that their clothes and floor mats have been left hanging on clotheslines. 

Kazalee Johnson, a community worker, lost his 8-months-pregnant sister, his brother, niece and many, many others: too many to name."They died. They died," he said. "So many people died -- the houses on your right and even the houses on your left. They are all gone."

In another village, one of the local clinics had to be locked up after all the health care workers based there contracted the virus. Only one survived. Some kilometres away is the town of Barkedu, home to more than 8,000 people, which is now completely under quarantine, no one can go in, and no one can go out.

Epidemics are often graded by their RO, or reproductive number. RO 0 signifies that the disease cannot be passed from person to person. An RO less than 1 will die out quickly because there will be few secondary infections. Any RO above 1 connotes an expanding epidemic. A recent report showed a new calculation of the RO for this epidemic and it found that when the outbreak began in Guinea back then in 2013, its RO was 1.5, meaning each person infected one and a half other people. But by early July 2014, the RO in Sierra Leone was a hideous 2.53, so the epidemic was more than doubling in size with each round of transmission. Today in Liberia, the worse hit country so far, the virus is spreading so rapidly that no RO has been computed. 

In fact, recent figures showed a surge in new cases in Liberia.The surge is as a result of more than 500 new cases recorded in just a week. WHO said that it expects thousands of new infections in Liberia in the coming weeks.

But there is hope.

Hope despite the fact that the sole major international responder, Doctors Without Borders pleaded for help many months ago and warned repeatedly that the virus was spreading out of control. It had to take the near death of two American doctors  who got infected in Liberia, for the WHO to finally awaken from its slumber and declare the disease an epidemic. The disease which could have been easily nipped in the bud months ago has now spread to five African countries.

Hope in the growing number of survivors. A recen t study revealed that 45% of those infected recovered from it. 

Hope as production of ZMapp, the `wonder' serum which is believed to have cured the two American doctors, is being expedited. A report released last week, showed the result of a test carried out on 18 healthy monkeys who had been injected with lethal doses of the virus. ZMapp healed all 18 of them.

Hope as human trials of an experimental vaccine began last week. So far no adverse reactions have been experienced by any of the healthy volunteers.

Hope as I dream of a day, not so far away, when I will offer without an iota of fear, the traditional Catholic firm handshake as a sign of peace to the Yoruba man in the white agbada sitting next to me at the 6.30 am mass, and a small peck on each cheek to the thin French lady on the other side. Just like we used to do. 

A day where mourners will once again escort their dead to the burial grounds.