Hawa Idrisa was visiting her father-in-law in an Ebola ward in
eastern Sierra Leone when his drip snapped out and his atrophying veins
spurted thin, uncoagulated blood into her eyes and mouth.
Hawa had
been carrying her infant daughter Helen but luckily she had laid the
child down, otherwise the baby would almost certainly be dead by now.
A
single droplet of blood smaller than a full stop can carry up to 100
million particles of the deadly Ebola virus, yet one is enough to end a
human life.
"The blood got all over me, and people were running away. So I took a bucket of chlorine and poured it over myself", Hawa said.
She
returned home to forget her ordeal, but a week later she began
experiencing fever and headaches, the early symptoms of the Ebola.
Her
12-month-old mercifully tested negative, but her husband Nallo was
infected and he and Hawa checked into the Doctors Without Borders' (MSF)
treatment facility in the eastern district of Kailahun.
Hawa
spent four weeks drifting between life and death at the centre, in the
district capital Kailahan city, a trading post of 30 000 in the Kissi
triangle linking to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
"I didn't know what
was happening to me. I didn't even know where I was. I don't remember
anything from that time", she told AFP of the ordeal she survived.
Ebola
kills more than half of the people it infects, putrifying their insides
in the worst cases until their vital organs seep from their bodies.
It
is highly infectious but not particularly contagious, meaning that once
you are exposed, your chances of escaping the fever are extremely low,
although it can only be passed on through bodily fluids.
Survival and suspicion
The
good news is that when patients are caught early enough, given
paracetamol for their fevers kept rehydrated and nourished their chances
of survival increase dramatically.
Hawa proudly shows off a certificate saying she has recovered fully, and she is preparing to return home.
"I know there is nothing wrong with my daughter, but my mind and heart will be at the centre with my husband", she says.
Already
more than 2 100 people have been infected across four West African
countries, and 1 145 people have died, dwarfing previous Ebola
outbreaks.
The epidemic is perhaps worst of all in Sierra Leone, which has registered 810 cases, more than any other country.
The
hardest-hit districts, Kailahun and the diamond trading hub of Kenema
next door, have been sealed off to ordinary members of the public.
Around
a million people in the two districts are in effective lockdown, and
locals say soaring food prices are pushing the region towards a crisis.
Local doctors and nurses are fighting not just the disease, but also the distrust of locals who fear modern medical practices.
Relatives
have been known to snatch infected loved-ones from clinics to die in
their own villages, exacerbating the spread of the virus.
They
have even attacked treatment centres, as armed men did in neighbouring
Liberia at the weekend convinced that Ebola is a Western conspiracy
against traditional African communities and that foreign health-workers
are in on the secret.
Some 1 500 police and soldiers have been
deployed to prevent raids, but they are powerless faced with the
suspicion and fear of poorly educated traditional communities.
Many
tribespeople at the epicentre of the outbreak either don't know how to
prevent and treat Ebola or do not believe it exists at all.
This, says MSF, is where the survivors come in.
Building trust
Ella
Watson-Stryker, 34, a health promoter with the aid agency, is part of a
team taking Hawa and other survivors home to their villages.
She
will gather their neighbours and family members around answer their
questions about the virus and try to reassure them that Hawa poses no
danger.
"This is very exciting for us. It's also really beneficial
to the overall response to the outbreak because when survivors go home,
they can explain about their stay at the centre.
"They give people hope that it is possible to survive and it really builds trust between the community and MSF", she says.
Watson-Stryker
also says that when survivors go back to their communities, people
begin to understand that treatment centres are not just "a place where
people go to die".
They are surprised to learn that patients are
fed, given unlimited soft drinks, access to toilets, showers and
medicine, and that their families are encouraged to visit.
"We try
to assuage the fears of the community, because there are a lot of
rumours out there, that as soon as you come to the treatment centre you
will just be left to die."
Back at the MSF centre, Nallo enthuses
about his future with Hawa and their baby girl, despite remaining in
grave danger in the high risk area.
"At first people thought that when they got here, they were going to have all their blood removed and they would die", he says.
"They
have been giving me drugs and I am much better, so when I get back to
my community I will tell people that if it ever happens that they get
Ebola we advise them to come here."
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