When Ebola hit Uganda two years ago it was the third outbreak in a dozen years the president quickly went on TV and urged Ugandans to avoid touching each other. Health officials speedily quarantined people. The quick reactions by authorities and ordinary people helped snuff out that outbreak with only 17 deaths. Over the decades, Ebola cases have been confirmed in 10 African countries, including Congo where the disease was first reported in 1976. But until this year, Ebola had never come to West Africa. When people began dying there in March in an outbreak that on Friday escalated into an international public health emergency, governments and ordinary citizens didn't know what they were confronting or how to respond, allowing the virus to spread out of control, according to AP. Some five months ago, deep in the steamy forests of southern Guinea, people began developing fevers with body aches, diarrhea and vomiting. Even when they died, relatives touched and washed the dead, unaware that cleaning up vomit, diarrhea and handling soiled clothing is very risky because the virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids. Malaria is a common killer in Africa, it was believed by some families to be the cause of death. As more people became gravely ill, some desperate relatives took their loved ones to the distant capital in search of better medical care, jammed into minivans or other transportation. People who came into contact with those who showed symptoms also became infected, and they in turn infected other people as they traveled freely. Soon, people in the capital, Conakry, were getting sick. By late March, Doctors Without Borders announced that Guinea faced an "unprecedented epidemic" of Ebola. -- SPA 19:56 LOCAL TIME 16:56 GMT تغريد
