Gold Mining and Disease Transmission

Today on State of the World . The town where the latest Ebola outbreak likely began . You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon . An ebola outbreak is spreading across the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Health experts warn it could become one of the largest Ebola outbreaks in recent years. In just over a month, Congo's health ministry says more than one thousand cases have been confirmed and more than two hundred and fifty people have died . The outbreak was first detected in the gold mining town of Mongolu, where health work ers began noticing a cluster of mysterious illnesses and deaths earlier this year. By the time authorities officially declared an outbreak in May, the virus had already gained a foothold . Since then, cases have been reported elsewhere in Eastern Congo and across the border in Uganda, but Mongalu remains one of the outbreak's hot spots. Health workers there are battling not only the virus itself, but also fear, misinformation , and deep mistrust of medical authorities. Reporter Emmett Livingstone takes us to ground zero of this Ebola outbreak. Mongalu has grown accustomed to the sound of loss . On a green hill top in the town's only hospital, relatives of a patient who has died of Ebola openly grieve . In this impoverished town of about one hundred thirty thousand people , there are Ebola deaths almost every day . No one is sure how long the disease has been circulating here , but it was spreading before health workers raised the alarm. Joseph Mute is a community leader in the Mongolu neighborhood worst hit by the virus. He says that from at least March , people started dying in their homes with blood in their mouths and blood in their noses. Bleeding is a hallmark of Ebola infection, but no one suspected the disease at first. Tuberculosis , AIDS, and mercury poisoning were all advanced as possible reasons . Another popular theory was that the burning of a damaged coffin in February had placed a curse on the area. Burning the coffin violated a taboo. As Joseph Mute put it, some believed that the flames of the coffin spread through the neighborhood bringing illness. The community leader pointed out several empty houses where Ebola had decimated whole families. About fifty people have died in his neighborhood alone, Joseph says. Few residents agreed to talk to us. This is a rough and remote mining town where people live close together in unsanitary conditions. It's been over a month since Congo officially declared an outbreak , and while the reality of Ebola has set in, there are still parts of Mongalu that are hostile to health responders. This resistance, coupled with poverty , partly explains how Ebola spread Another reason is gold, the bedrock of Mong alu's economy. I'm in a gold mine in Mong alu. It's in a valley surrounded by steep green hill s with lush grass , palm trees, eucalyptus trees. You can hear the sound of a generator and that's pushing sand down a sluice . Workers then look through that sluice to try and find bits of gold . There I'd say maybe twenty thirty pits . Dozens and dozens and dozens of people are working , despite the Ebola outbreak. The workers that we've talked to are from everywhere across Eastern Congo. People travel far and wide in search of economic opportunity . It gives you a hint as to how the disease spread from Mongalu over such a large region . One of them is Bisimwa Biraki. He says that he fled conflict with Rwanda backed M twenty three rebels much further south and ended up here . With such a mobile population, it's easy to see how Ebola spread. Biragi says he's afraid of catching the disease . He tries to take precautions, but his work puts him in proximity to others. Most people find it a challenge to protect themselves. Only about twenty percent of Mongwalu has access to running water . At the hospital, six staff members already died . But on the evening we were there, as dusk settled over Mong alu, a recovered hospital staff er walked free alongside a three year old girl . In an instant, the town's prevailing gloom gave way to joy. Medical personnel sang about God's grace and danced as the two discharged patients looked on in a daze . One of them was Florence Mangembel, the hospital's bookkeeper. has any physique? It was hell, she said, minutes after leaving the Ebola ward. My body ached, I was weak, and I had no appetite. Bangembo said that she got sick trying to help her sister who she'd found collapsed and vomiting in a field. She insisted that her sister go to the hospital where she then died. Some family members have since blamed Mangeembo for causing the death. A lot of people in Mongalu are afraid of the hospital, where admitted Ebola patients often don't come out alive. There is no vaccine for the species of Ebola virus spreading in eastern Congo. The virus exists, Mangembo said, and it's very stubborn. Despite surviving the disease, she says she feels stressed. With infection and deaths weighing on the town, stress is a feeling common to everyone here . But at least for a fleeting moment, the hospital celebration offers a rare release from a nightmare that shows no sign of disappearing soon. For NPR news, I'm Emmet Livingstone in Mongalu. That's the state of the world from NPR . Thanks for listening.