On Scene in the Hot Zone

摘要

No one shakes hands in Kikwit anymore. And that may be the most hopeful of all the signs that the horror in Zaire is being contained. Through the dirt streets of the sprawling city's tin-roof shantytowns and in nearby villages last week, sound trucks and volunteers on bicycles blasted out warnings about the deadly Ebola virus. Teams of medical students searched for victims and survivors, workers plastered public buildings with warning posters and handed out leaflets describing symptoms. The international effort to fight the epidemic seems to have gotten through to people whose tradition of having women wash the dead—including a corpse's mouth—invites catastrophe. The most telling development: victims' relatives began asking Red Cross volunteers in goggles, masks and white helmets to handle the corpses.