For the Trump administration, anyone who has set foot in the Democratic Republic of Congo recently is considered a public health risk because of a deadly Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the African country.
This past week, the United States closed its borders to travelers from Congo, Uganda or South Sudan, citing the outbreak. It even forced a Detroit-bound flight to be diverted to Canada because a passenger from Congo was on board.
But in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital, with 20 million people, life goes on as usual. Open-air markets where vendors sell cassava, fish, fruit and clothes remained packed. Workers continued to cram themselves into taxis or hop on their motorcycles for morning commutes on the heavily congested roads. Patios and bars were full of patrons drinking beer and eating grilled chicken with mayo.
“I don’t know and don’t see why we should be afraid,” Malula Richard Esambo, the president of a soccer fan group in Kinshasa, said at an event in the city this week organized by the Congolese Football Association. “Kinshasa is safe for now.”
Spanning more than 900,000 square miles, Congo is nearly six times the size of California. The distance between the center of the Ebola outbreak, Ituri Province in the northeast, and Kinshasa is roughly 950 miles, about the distance to Orlando from New York.
And there is not much travel between Kinshasa and Ituri because of poor roads, reducing the likelihood of the outbreak spreading to the capital, said Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
That is why, Dr. de Oliveira said, the United States would be better served by supporting the affected countries in order to stem the outbreak at its source, rather than “establish a travel ban or isolation of all patients who come from such a large country.”
“I don’t think that’s a good public health response,” he added.
Still, some public health experts warn that because the virus spread unchecked for weeks, faraway places may not yet be in the clear. There is no vaccine for this species of the virus, called Bundibugyo, and health officials are still struggling to set up clinics in Bunia, the capital of Ituri.
On Friday, the governor of Ituri banned gatherings of more than 50 people and suspended a soccer match in Bunia.
So far, there have been 177 suspected deaths and about 750 suspected cases of the virus, which has spread into Uganda and South Sudan. If it were to reach a megacity like Kinshasa, it could present significant challenges because its dense urban environment and large population offer ripe conditions for rapid spread.
What eases the minds of many Congolese is the fact that they have been here before.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak to hit the country since the virus was discovered 50 years ago. For all of the challenges that Congo might have, its health authorities are well experienced in responding to Ebola.
“Here, people think it doesn’t concern Kinshasa,” said Christine Nlandu, 37, a vendor at a suburban market. “They think it’s a far-off story.”
Petronella Mugoni, a social and behavioral epidemiologist who has worked in Congo, said she feared that some in Kinshasa had become complacent about Ebola because the city had not been heavily affected by previous outbreaks.
It is critical for the government to step up its targeted public health information about Ebola, she said. But that can be difficult in a city where there are so many diseases that kill more people annually than Ebola has, and residents face an overload of health information, she said.
It may also be hard for many people in Kinshasa to focus on Ebola prevention when they have to rely on informal work in order to feed their families, Dr. Mugoni said.
“Even in the midst of challenges, earning money takes precedence,” she said. “Closing markets down would be more catastrophic than Ebola for many.”
But residents of Goma, another major city, are not taking the Ebola outbreak lightly. Goma is the largest city in the eastern part of the country, and there is a lot of travel between Goma and Ituri. On top of that, Goma is currently under the control of M23, a rebel group.
“I am overwhelmed by the news,” said Joëlle Koko Zihindula, 28, a youth worker in Goma. “It is depressing, how the situation is all mixed with conflicts.”
The Congolese government has posted a message on social media stressing “the importance of adhering to preventive measures in response to the Ebola outbreak declared in Ituri.”
But there have been no public awareness campaigns targeting Kinshasa. There are no bans on large gatherings. Schools remain open.
The government has told educators to maintain vigilance and conduct awareness campaigns for their students, said Sister Elysee Ntoto Mazoba, the principal at Madame Lecandele School in northwestern Kinshasa.
One student at Madame Lecandele, Christopher Ciribagula, 9, has taken the awareness campaign to heart. He said he and other students were told to avoid touching dead animals, to tell their parents immediately if they have a fever and not to go close to someone with a bloody nose. “That means they have Ebola,” he said.
They have also been encouraged to wash their hands frequently, Christopher said. He is not excited about an upcoming family trip because he does not want to come into contact with someone who might be sick, he said. “I am very afraid of this disease,” he said. “If this disease ever reaches Kinshasa where we live, it could be dangerous for the whole city.”
Not all of the concerns surrounding Ebola are about life and death.
Some soccer fans fear that they may be denied entry into the United States to support their team in the World Cup. Congo is scheduled to play its first game on June 17 in Houston. Mr. Esambo, the president of the fan group, has tried to allay those fears, saying that the visa process was already underway and that he was confident the American authorities would allow them into the United States.
“America is a great country,” he said. “Making such groundless decisions would not be a good move.”
Arlette Bashizi contributed reporting from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lynsey Chutel from London, and Zimasa Matiwane from Johannesburg.
