Tag: Democratic Republic of Congo
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Ebola on this side
Elisabeth Preston-HsuAtlanta, Georgia, United States In September 2014, my husband Chris boarded a plane from Atlanta, Georgia for the Democratic Republic of Congo, his first trip to Africa for work. We had just moved back to Atlanta two months before when he started a new career with the Centers for Disease Control. He would spend…
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Not all heroes wear capes
Cross De Idialu Port Harcourt, Nigeria It was the year 2014, and an unknown deadly disease was eating deep into the western region of the African continent. The first case was said to have occurred on December 26, 2013 when a little boy who most likely had contact with wild animals fell ill and died…
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Dressing the General
Rebecca SingerChicago, Illinois, United States “Rebecca, can you help me with a dressing change?” Clarence, the nurse and secessionist fighter, asked from the doorway of the room where we were being held. He made it sound like a request, yet the tall, lanky fighter flanking him with the hunting rifle casually pointed in my direction…
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Abandon
Chris BirdLondon, Great Britain Patient details have been changed to protect patient confidentiality. Once a month, the heads of service at Lulimba Hospital, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, sit in the meeting room (hard wooden benches in a hut of beaten earth, roofed with plastic sheeting) to go over the statistics.…