Ebola survivor calls for compassion as fear, unrest spread during outbreak

12 years agone, on a raging, summertime forenoon in Monrovia, Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly woke up with an upset stomach. 

“I was praying that it was not Ebola,” he recalled. He thought maybe it was malaria because of the similar symptoms. 

He recounts the fear he felt when, through the barrier of his bedroom window, a colleague delivered the news he tested positive for Ebola. 

As he processed the result, he called his wife.

“I was apologizing because I thought I was going to die. And I felt very sad that I was gonna be leaving my wife and two little children,” said Brantly. 

He survived, with medical care in Liberia — including prioritized access to an experimental therapy — and evacuation to the U.S., where he was the first person in the country treated for the disease. More than half of all Ebola patients in the 2014 outbreak died.

Now, the deadly Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus stalks the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda with no vaccine. Locals are turning their frustrations into fire, as an attack on an Ebola hospital occurred on Thursday. 

"Ebola is an illness that carries a lot of stigma," he said.

"I want to call for a calm, measured, compassionate response from the governments of the world, from the people of the word." 

WATCH | Ebola survivor describes challenges of current outbreak:

Brantly is still unsure how he contracted the Zaire strain of Ebola. Maybe it was holding the hand of a patient’s daughter at the Ebola treatment unit, comforting her about her mother’s illness. 

It’s sometimes called a “caregiver’s disease,” he notes, because of the risk of transmission to health-care workers or any family member caring for a sick person. 

The virus can also spread from body fluids on surfaces, or when tending to the body of someone who has died — which has led to conflicts about burial practices.

Nearly 600 health-care workers were infected with the virus during the 2014 epidemic in Western Africa. 

“Ebola is a very difficult disease to deal with. It has that fear factor that spreads panic in communities,” said Brantly, who now works as the chief operations officer at Christian Health Service Corps.

As of Friday, the World Health Organization said there were nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus — at least four of these suspected deaths are health-care workers. 

Ebola outbreak in Congo 'spreading rapidly,' WHO chief says

The location of the outbreak, in a border region with a lot of movement due to mining, is making containment more difficult, health officials have said.

A weak health-care infrastructure in the rural area and civil unrest involving armed conflict have left health-care workers scrambling and subject to disparagement.

“There can often be a lot of sensationalization and fear-mongering,” said Brantly about what the beginning of an outbreak is like.

Brantly says it is “only going to make it more difficult to contain this outbreak.”

On Thursday, a crowd set Ebola hospital tents on fire in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The attack occurred after a family was prevented from burying their son, who is suspected to have died from the virus. Gunshots were also fired by police to disperse the crowd.

A statement released from the Alliance for International Medical Action warns of misinformation spreading on the internet and social media, which fuels mistrust and violence towards health facilities and further burdens their ability to adequately provide care.

Other control protocols, including full-body personal protective equipment, rapid test kits and contact tracing, are all pivotal in reducing transmission. 

On Tuesday, WHO mobilized 12 tonnes of emergency supplies to the Democratic Republic of Congo to contribute to improving those chances. Canadian Red Cross workers are currently on their way to assist contact tracing.

Brantly is grateful for the medical team that took care of him in Liberia, who administered an experimental, intravenous treatment of monoclonal antibodies known as ZMapp. (Developed in part at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, it never received approval for widespread use.)

That type of treatment was a privilege those in the current outbreak do not have access to. 

There are now two vaccines and treatments available for the strain of Ebola Brantly fought. None are approved for the Bundibugyo virus in the this Ebola outbreak, though some are under development.

Still, early care for specific symptoms, including fluid replacement and oxygen support, can help people survive, according to the WHO. 

“We should be concerned about the wellbeing of our neighbors in East Africa and the ways that people can help,” said Brantly. “We need to do whatever we can to come to their aid.”

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