\n<\/p>\n
W<\/span>hen 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 Blaisealso died of the disease at the Bunia Evangelical medical centre, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Ituri province worst hit by Ebola. The 30-year-old died at Rwampara\u2019s isolation centre, where he had spent two days on oxygen therapy, according to his family.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was someone who was deeply committed to making a difference in the lives of communities,\u201d says his colleague Dr Richard Lokudu, medical director of Mongbwalu hospital, 45 miles (70km) from Ituri\u2019s capital, Bunia. \u201cHe was devoted to his work.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n double quotation markWe who are fighting Ebola work like soldiers. It may well be that others, myself included, will follow Vladimir tomorrowDr Richard Lokudu<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d says Lokudu, who adds that the two other nurses remain very sick.<\/p>\n Lokudu says the conditions under which they are working to combat Ebola are \u201cprecarious and agonising\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Maduali was born in Kisangani, north-east DRC, <\/strong><\/em>his mother\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n <\/span>Ugandan Red Cross workers evacuate the body of a suspected Ebola victim in Kampala. There are now five Ebola cases linked to travellers from the DRC. <\/span> Photograph: Badru Katumba\/AFP\/Getty<\/p>\n Josu\u00e9 Maduali, his younger brother, says: \u201cHe 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 \u2013 with the aim of saving lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Their aunt had opened a little restaurant in Kisangani to raise the money for his school fees, he says. \u201cIt was with the ultimate aim of him becoming useful to society one day.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThe volunteers \u2013 Alikana Udumusi Augustin, Sezabo Katanabo and Ajiko Chandiru Viviane \u2013 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,\u201d the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement on Saturday.<\/p>\n double quotation markMany NGOs in the development sector were funded by USAID, which no longer existsKoko Buroko<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n According to health professionals, the Ebola outbreak \u2013 the 17th in the DRC since the virus was first identified in 1976, this time of a new strain \u2013 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.<\/p>\n Lokudu says: \u201cThe problem is that the disease wasn\u2019t recognised at the outset. It was only when we noticed the deaths of people on the frontline, that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Koko Buroko, an international relations analyst, believes the dismantling of western development aid programmes has increased rural communities\u2019 vulnerability to Ebola.<\/p>\n \u201cMost 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,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no cure for this disease,\u201d he says. \u201cTogether with our partners, we are considering how to protect those on the frontline, including healthcare workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Josu\u00e9 Maduali says when he last spoke to his brother, the young doctor was shocked to think he could have contracted Ebola. \u201cAmong the things he feared most was death. When he was admitted to hospital, he didn\u2019t believe he could be suspected of having Ebola. His jaw dropped,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he tested positive for Ebola, he was psychologically devastated,\u201d his brother says, but adds: \u201cWhen he was taken to isolation at Mongbwalu hospital, he told me he had a better chance of surviving this dangerous disease.\u201d<\/p>\n Maduali hopes the DRC\u2019s leaders will honour the work his brother and other healthcare workers have done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 Blaisealso died of the disease at the Bunia Evangelical medical centre, in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[498,376,918,366,141,24543,1525,11968,1123,6352],"class_list":{"0":"post-49829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-among","9":"tag-death","10":"tag-development","11":"tag-doctors","12":"tag-dying","13":"tag-ebola","14":"tag-feared","15":"tag-frontline","16":"tag-global","17":"tag-nurses"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}