Word: kikwit
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...take-home lesson of the 1995 epidemic was simple: poor, under-resourced hospitals in which basic elements of public health are ignored serve as vectors for epidemics. There never would have been an Ebola epidemic in Kikwit had there not been a looted, decrepit hospital into which the first handful of cases were admitted. Once inside a facility that lacked any modicum of hygienic practices the virus spread rapidly, first claiming large numbers of health care workers, and then their patients...
Laurie Garrett is a reporter for Newsday and the author of Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1995 Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, Zaire...
Scientists had suspected that the disease, which killed 245 in the Zairian town of Kikwit last year, was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees or other forest creatures. Thanks to the latest outbreak, that theory now looks pretty solid. But where is the virus coming from? Chimps seem to be as susceptible as people to the pathogen, so it's unlikely that they can harbor it for long periods of time...
After the Kikwit outbreak, health officials stepped up the search for the virus' natural reservoir--an animal that can house the microbe and not suffer ill effects, or at least not fatal ones. Last June, U.S. researchers collected thousands of tissue samples from insects and small animals living around Kikwit. But tests on the specimens at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have come up empty...
Sister Floralba had lived in Kikwit most of her life. She was widely known and deeply loved, for her medical skill and her kindness. She often found clothes for the very poor, and food. When she died her body was carried all through the hospital, and then through town to the cathedral, where she lay in an open coffin for two days so her friends could view the body. They stood over her and wept, caressed her face, sang her praises. It was the end of April, and no one knew what had killed her. But they would soon find...