The Ebola Treatment Center (CTE) in Masoya, where the current Ebola epidemic started, was vandalized on the morning of Thursday, March 11. According to health authorities, angry young people have taught themselves to chairs and other hand washing devices, indignant at the death of their relative, a 25-year-old who died in isolation at the CTE.
The demonstrators were quickly calmed down before they reached the high-risk perimeter, told ACTUALITE.CD, Doctor Sangala de Ngulo, treatment doctor at the Masoya Referral Health Center.
“This is a patient we received on March 8. He had fever, anemia, abdominal pain. We drove him to CTE. The same day we proceeded to the sample in relation to the suspicion of EVD. The result was negative. 48 hours later, the second sample was taken, which was also negative. So we wanted to unload it. Unfortunately, the patient died around 4 a.m. So we put the body in the morgue while waiting for the family to arrive for a dignified and secure burial. So his relatives, who came from the village, did not find a worthy interlocutor. This is how they started to break the chairs and sinks (hand washing devices), ”Dr Sangala from Ngulo told ACTUALITE.CD.
A team of health workers went to Ngere, the village of origin of the perpetrators of acts of vandalism to raise the awareness of relatives of the deceased.
“They haven’t reached the risky part. But they took their bodies for burial. A team was dispatched to Ngere, 7 km from Masoya. We made the village chief and the young people aware. They understood what we are doing, ”he adds.
This information was confirmed to the Butembo press by the provincial minister of health. Doctor Nzanzu Syalita calls on residents of areas affected by Ebola to be cautious to avoid plunging the region into a health crisis. As of Thursday, 11 positive cases have already been recorded, including four deaths and two cured. But since March 1, Butembo and Lubero have not recorded any new cases of Ebola. The provincial minister of health congratulates the inhabitants and asks for their commitment to the eradication of this disease.
Claude Sengenya
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