Let's Talk About Ebola (in Senegal)

In reality, the number one question I got while I was home was about Ebola.  Is it in Senegal? Are you close to it? Is Senegal worried about it? Are you safe? I was not really receptive to it, and let me explain why.  My service has not been about Ebola, my service has been about meeting a wonderful village and focusing on education, malaria, and nutrition.  I can talk about those things until the cows come home.  I can tell a really great travel story. I can give you the low down on Pulaar culture.  But anything on Ebola I am terribly undereducated.

This is West Africa

This has changed since I've seen most of you.  I became aware of Ebola in February at the Stomping Out Malaria Conference.  At this conference, there were two volunteers from Guinea and three from Liberia; all have since been evacuated.  After the initial "What is Ebola and what are the chances it's coming to Senegal," I mostly left it alone.  I did a little research, talked about it with my Peace Corps friends and my village friends, and became a little more knowledgeable (I can tell someone I'm afraid of bleeding from my eyes in Pulaar!).

My compound had had a guest with us for a couple of months, a Guinean woman named Binta, and around late February she wanted to go home (to Guinea).  Her husband was there, and her extended family, and she missed them.  The only problems were that there was Ebola and Senegal had closed all of the borders.  So she was stuck for a little while, and didn't seem overly concerned about getting Ebola.

Binta eventually got through, and I'm not sure whether it was because the border closing was ineffective or around the time Senegal realized the border was ineffective and re-opened it.  The initial border closing was non-effective.  All of my information is second hand, but I heard of cars just rolling through piled with Guineans, paying a bribe or not even being stopped, and entering the country.  A lot of these people were only in Senegal to go to the markets, and then they would go home.  Senegal closed their borders again while I was home, and now the markets are noticeably smaller.

While I was home Senegal got their first (and only, Alhumdouliliah) case of Ebola.  The patient was a Guinean kid attending university in Dakar.  He was staying with relatives in the suburbs, and was feeling ill.  He went to several different health facilities.  The first couple diagnosed him with malaria, and only when he continued to get more sick was he properly diagnosed with Ebola.  He, along with several dozen people he had come into contact with were quarantined.  The student survived Ebola and was deported back to Guinea.  No one he came into contact with showed any symptoms.

Senegal has been pretty active on the education front since Guinea announced the outbreak.  Radio shows were immediatly made and the news was listened to religiously.  My family is Guinean, their parents moved to Senegal for land, and they still have a lot of relatives living in Guinea.  It was troubling and sad, but as far as I know they don't know anyone who had Ebola.

Right when I got back the health posts started doing house to house visits to make sure people understand where Ebola comes from, how it spreads, and what to do if someone gets it.  I was in my compound when our health worker came, and it was interesting to be on the other side of a home visit for once.  Everyone in my compound already knew a good deal, I'm assuming from listening to the radio.

Some responses: "It's being clean.  Wash with soap.  You don't know where other people have been, so when your kids come home from the field you wash them with soap."

And they're right! More and more businesses are supplying hand santizer.  When I went to the hospital the other day, they had us wash our hands with bleach water on the way in and on the way out.  When my flight landed, they checked all of our eyes and then made us use hand sanitizer. It's suddenly OK not to greet everyone by shaking hands. Every health post is supposed to be supplied with a quarantine tent.

So Ebola in Senegal? The people are educated, much more educated than those in southern Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.  Senegal does not have the same history of civil war and ethnic tension that they have.  Senegal has been preparing.  While the misdiagnosis of the Guinean student it worrisome, I think it sufficiently embarrassed the Senegalese health system enough to be extra cautious from now on.  Conclusion: I'm wary, but I have hope that Senegal will be OK.