{"id":13383,"date":"2026-06-09T16:31:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=13383"},"modified":"2026-06-09T16:31:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T16:31:59","slug":"survivors-share-experiences-and-lessons-from-congos-2018-ebola-outbreak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=13383","title":{"rendered":"Survivors share experiences and lessons from Congo\u2019s 2018 Ebola outbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

By SEBASTIEN KITSA MUSAYI<\/strong><\/p>\n

BENI, Congo (AP) \u2014 The memories come flooding back whenever Vianney Kambale Kombi hears the word Ebola.<\/p>

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He remembers the pain and fear in his community in the eastern Congo city of Beni during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak, history\u2019s second-biggest with more than 3,400 reported cases and over 2,200 deaths. It was stopped with the aid of vaccines.<\/p>\n

Kombi also remembers the broad skepticism over the disease, attacks on health workers and inaction from patients that he blames for the speed in which the disease spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was witchcraft,\u201d said Kombi. \u201cThe community had not accepted that this disease existed and it had not accepted that we could recover from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Beni, a bustling commercial hub near the borders with Uganda and Rwanda, some fear that a repeat of mistakes made during Congo\u2019s past outbreaks and the lack of an approved vaccine this time around might make the response to the latest outbreak more challenging.<\/p>\n

A total of 550 cases of the disease were confirmed as of Sunday in the current outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which can cause Ebola disease, including 101 deaths and 19 recoveries.<\/p>\n