Ebola survivors comfort sick and frightened in Congo outbreak

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Of the more than 1,260 confirmed and probable Ebola cases, 28 per cent are children, according to figures from the World Health Organization

. More than 800 people, including at least 248 under the age of 18, have died since the outbreak began in August.

Masika’s experience inspired her to join the fight against Ebola, comforting sick and frightened children who have to be isolated from their families and familiar surroundings to avoid infecting others. She is one of at least 23 former patients employed at the centre in Beni, which is run by the Alliance for International Medical Action .

“My goal is to make her happy,” Masika said of her small charge, the youngest of five family members who were being treated at the centre. “I treat the child like she’s my own, so she’s at ease even while she’s away from her parents.”A few cubes down, the body of a 2-year-old boy who had died in the night lay on a bed, his thin frame barely making a bump under the flowered sheet that had been pulled up over his face.

On a recent morning, she strolled around a yard of hard-packed earth, rocking 7-month-old Christvie in her arms. Baby clothes were hung up to dry on the fence of the single-story compound, which had been freshly decorated in cartoon murals. Many are afraid to seek help from the experts. Some believe the disease is part of a plot by foreign aid agencies to make money, others that Congo’s former government was trying to kill off opposition supporters ahead of a December election.

 

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