Image: Dr Tibenderana Katho Blaise, who died of Ebola on Tuesday at Bunia medical centre, is buried. He was the fifth hospital staff member to die. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters
By Prosper Heri Ngorora in Goma
Medics battling the incurable disease in Democratic Republic of the Congo working in ‘agonising’ conditions
When Dr Vladimir Maduali died of Ebola in the early hours of Sunday morning, he was the fourth member of staff at his hospital to be killed by the disease in as many days. Two days later, his colleague Dr Tibenderana Katho Blaise also died of the disease at the Bunia Evangelical medical centre, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Maduali graduated from the University of Bunia just three years ago and had been working in the Rwampara region, one of the areas of eastern DRC’s Ituri province worst hit by Ebola. The 30-year-old died at Rwampara’s isolation centre, where he had spent two days on oxygen therapy, according to his family.
“He was someone who was deeply committed to making a difference in the lives of communities,” says his colleague Dr Richard Lokudu, medical director of Mongbwalu hospital, 45 miles (70km) from Ituri’s capital, Bunia. “He was devoted to his work.”
Since the outbreak was identified this month, Lokudu says a further five members of his staff are thought to have contracted the virus, three of whom have died, although testing for the disease has yet to catch up with the infections or death toll.
We who are fighting Ebola work like soldiers. It may well be that others, myself included, will follow Vladimir tomorrow
Dr Richard Lokudu
“We have already lost three nurses at our hospital. We assume they had been in contact with Ebola carriers; the test results may confirm or refute these assumptions. These nurses worked here with passion and, sadly, they are no longer with us,” says Lokudu, who adds that the two other nurses remain very sick.
Lokudu says the conditions under which they are working to combat Ebola are “precarious and agonising”.
“We who are fighting Ebola work like soldiers. It may well be that others, myself included, will follow Vladimir tomorrow. We are fighting for the same cause: to save human lives from this Ebola epidemic,” he says.
Maduali was born in Kisangani, north-east DRC, his mother’s second child. He left in 2019 to move nearly 400 miles to Bunia to continue his studies in the town. His death has devastated his family, where he was the main breadwinner.
Josué Maduali, his younger brother, says: “He was passionate about medicine. From a young age, he saw his future only in medicine. That is why he studied maths and physics at secondary school and medicine at university – with the aim of saving lives.”
Their aunt had opened a little restaurant in Kisangani to raise the money for his school fees, he says. “It was with the ultimate aim of him becoming useful to society one day.”
Three volunteers from the Congolese Red Cross, working at the Mongbwalu hospital in Ituri, have also died over 11 days. They are believed to have contracted Ebola while moving bodies.
“The volunteers – Alikana Udumusi Augustin, Sezabo Katanabo and Ajiko Chandiru Viviane – are believed to have contracted Ebola virus on duty, while carrying out dead-body management activities as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement on Saturday.
Announcing that the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, would be visiting the country to witness the response on the ground, the Congolese health ministrysaid on Tuesday that more than 900 suspected cases and 220 deaths had been reported as of 25 May in the provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri.
According to health professionals, the Ebola outbreak – the 17th in the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976, this time of a new strain – was not detected quickly. This is thought to have contributed to its spread. The WHO has urged countries neighbouring the DRC to coordinate across borders to prevent the virus from spreading regionally.
Lokudu says: “The problem is that the disease wasn’t recognised at the outset. It was only when we noticed the deaths of people on the frontline, that’s when we realised the problem was becoming increasingly serious and that we needed to investigate to find out what was causing the spate of deaths.”
Koko Buroko, an international relations analyst, believes the dismantling of western development aid programmes has increased rural communities’ vulnerability to Ebola.
“Most African countries whose health sectors have not progressed rely on international aid. In a country like the DRC, health services are run by numerous organisations. Many NGOs in the development sector were funded by USAID, which no longer exists,” he says.
Jean-Jacques Tamfum Muyembe, head of the National Institute for Biomedical Research and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus in 1976, acknowledged the threat to frontline staff in the fight against Ebola.
“There is no cure for this disease,” he says. “Together with our partners, we are considering how to protect those on the frontline, including healthcare workers.”
Josué Maduali says when he last spoke to his brother, the young doctor was shocked to think he could have contracted Ebola. “Among the things he feared most was death. When he was admitted to hospital, he didn’t believe he could be suspected of having Ebola. His jaw dropped,” he says.
“When he tested positive for Ebola, he was psychologically devastated,” his brother says, but adds: “When he was taken to isolation at Mongbwalu hospital, he told me he had a better chance of surviving this dangerous disease.”
Maduali hopes the DRC’s leaders will honour the work his brother and other healthcare workers have done.
