Three patients infected with Ebola virus escaped out of a quarantine in the city of Mbandaka in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this week.
More Than 600 Have Had Contact With Ebola Patients
Two of the patients who managed to slip out of the isolation ward in a hospital in the city of nearly 1.2 million people are now dead, but the third patient is alive and now under observation.
Health ministry sources said that police officers were deployed to help track down the patients.
WHO staff in Congo have likewise redoubled efforts to track all those who came into contact with these patients, said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic. Health workers have already came up with a list of 628 people who have had contact with known Ebola cases, and these individuals need to be vaccinated.
Convincing People To Follow Medical Advice
WHO and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that they could not force patients to stay in the hospital. Nonetheless, they hope that growing awareness of the hemorrhagic fever and the risks it poses would help convince people to follow medical advice.
Convincing people to seek medical treatment and observe safe practices to prevent the disease from spreading, however, is a challenge for health workers in this Central African nation.
Exposure to the dead body, bodily fluids, and personal items of people who died of Ebola can spread the disease. The nation's traditional practices in handling and burial of dead bodies, though, increase risk of transmission after death.
Those from more rural and remote areas may not even believe that the disease is real and that Western medicine can help.
"We hear people having doubts and worries about the epidemic," said Jose Barahona, Oxfam country director.
"We have seen cases of people leaving hospitals and refusing care, which could have dramatic consequences."
Awareness Campaigns May Help Curb Spread Of Disease
WHO and Oxfam now conduct awareness campaigns by organizing community dialogues and going door to door, advising people on hygiene precautions to observe during outbreaks.
No treatment is currently available for the deadly disease that has so far killed at least eight since May, but experimental vaccines are now being used to contain the current Ebola outbreak. Millions of dollars from international aid, which include those from the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Congolese government are now being allocated to prevent the spread of the disease.
