“At the start, neither the patients nor the doctors understood what was happening. There was talk of a mysterious illness that was similar to cholera and typhoid fever. Some patients snuck out of hospitals to get the opinion of traditional practitioners, which only helped spread the virus.
When a family member is sick, all of his relatives stay by his bedside
“In this city, like in surrounding towns, people don’t know what to do. When a family member is sick, all of his relatives stay by his bedside. Then, once they die, since it’s unthinkable to abandon a body, the body is buried. At any one of these moments, loved ones risk being infected.
“It is essential to do real work on the risks and means of transmission. Up until now, the authorities have broadcast advice over local radio, but that isn’t enough. I think that we don’t have an exact idea of the number of infected people because we only count people that are admitted for treatment. But there’s probably a lot more if we include surrounding towns and villages.”
via H5N1: Eyewitness testimony from the heart of Guinea’s Ebola outbreak.