Pain of losing child, wife to Ebola

The deaths of Mr Jeremiah Ekyokoza’s wife Kevina Birungi, and their child a week before the Ebola Sudan virus disease was declared a pandemic, are categorised under probable and community deaths. 

Because this family fell ill before the declaration, they were not sure what they were dealing with and so kept moving from the health unit and the church to seek healing.

Ekyokoza (40), a resident of Kalama B Village, Kassanda Sub-county in Kassanda District, is among the 87 survivors of the Ebola Sudan virus disease. 

In a bid to seek a cure for his family, including himself, his wife, and child who were battling at that time, an unknown disease, Ekyokoza’s family tried all possible means including visiting the health facilities, the church and witchdoctors. Ekyokoza was later diagnosed with the Ebola Sudan virus disease just two days after his wife passed away at home.

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At the time his two-year-old child got sick during the second week of September 2022, Ekyokoza was a farm labourer at one of the farms in Ngabano Village in Madudu Sub-county, Mubende District. The family had relocated to Mubende District from Kassanda after Ekyokoza got the job in August 2022. 

When his child fell sick weeks after they had moved, she was taken to Kiruuma Health Centre II, but the child’s health condition kept deteriorating. The medical teams prescribed several medicines, but her condition did not improve.

“We later got admitted to St Florence Medical Centre in Ngabano Village in Madudu Sub-county. My daughter was bleeding from the nose. She later died on September 15, 2022. This was the very time that my wife fell sick. She complained of a severe headache,” he says.

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Seeking healing

Ekyokoza and his wife then went to one of the churches at Kiruuma Sub-county to be prayed for. The pastor, who attended to his wife, advised them to go to Mubende Hospital since his wife had signs of severe malaria and was bleeding from the nose.

“The pastor told us to seek medical help from Mubende Hospital after spending two days at the church. This is when my family back at home in Kassanda District advised us to visit a witchdoctor,” he adds.

At this time, the community in Ngabano, Kiruuma and Madudu villages had already started spreading information about suspected witchcraft practices that had caused some deaths. Ekyokoza recalls that this happened before the government declared the outbreak of the Ebola Sudan virus disease on September 20, 2022, in Mubende.

Ekyokoza decided to transfer his wife back home to Kassanda. Birungi was now complaining of breathing complications, headache and bleeding from the nose. Their two-year-old who died earlier had presented the same symptoms. On September 19, 2022, his wife succumbed to the unknown disease at his parents’ home in Kalama B Village, Kassanda.

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A day after the burial of his wife on September 20, 2022, Ekyokoza felt body joint pains and developed breathing complications. By this time, the government had declared the outbreak of the Ebola disease in Mubende.

Tracing him

The health teams that had tried to make a follow-up on the families that had experienced unexplained deaths traced him to his father’s home at Kalama B Village. Both his wife and child were categorised as probable Ebola cases.

“I was already feeling very weak. I was transferred to Mubende Hospital in an ambulance vehicle where the health teams collected my blood sample. On September 22, 2022, test results confirmed that I was Ebola positive,” he says.

The test result confirming Ekyokoza as an Ebola patient did not surprise him.

“I had already been admitted to the Ebola treatment unit and my condition was deteriorating. I wanted quick treatment. I presented the same symptoms that both my wife and child had presented as they battled the unidentified disease,” he reveals.

While Ekyokoza did not bleed, he had severe diarrhoea, breathing complications and severe headache. He lost consciousness and spent about three days without eating food. He realised that he would possibly not survive. He later experienced frightening dreams as patient numbers increased and several of the patients admitted in critical condition breathed their last.

“At the time of my admission, both the female and male patients were in the same ward. I had no caregiver from my family, but it was later explained that non-patients were not allowed at the facility. The bad and frightening dreams left me depressed,” he says.

After 11 days at the patient ward, Ekyokoza regained some strength and could move outside the ward. He later got the good news from the medical teams that he would soon reunite with his family after test results confirmed that he was negative.

Ekyokoza was discharged from the Mubende Ebola treatment unit on September 30, 2022. He was one of the first two survivors discharged from the Ebola treatment unit at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital at a function officiated by the Minister of Health, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng.

Ekyokoza is quick to thank the medical staff at Mubende Hospital for the great care and love. He singles out the nurses at the Ebola treatment ward that acted as caregivers for the patients.

“They gave us plenty of food and fruits. They even washed our clothes,” he says.

Ekyokoza keeps breaking down while narrating the story. The pain he has had to endure has been too much. The loss of his wife and child has greatly affected his life. He lost property as he tried to secure money to treat them, but in the end, he failed to save the two lives.

Fighting trauma

Back at home, Ekyokoza reveals that a section of the residents, including his own family members, got scared and believed that he still had Ebola. He had to do many things by himself, including washing his clothes because the family members were not very sure about his status. It was only after much sensitisation that his family members began to directly help him with different things.

“I do not blame my own family because at the time I reported back home, the Ebola virus disease had already claimed several lives both in Mubende and Kassanda Districts. I thank the health teams for sensitising the community against acts of discrimination,” he says.

Ebola infection

Although it is more deadly, Ebola is much less infectious than coronavirus since it does not spread via airborne transmission. It spreads between humans by direct contact with contaminated bodily fluids - blood, saliva, vomit, semen, vaginal discharge, urine, faeces and sweat.

Ebola viruses Sudan and Zaire caused nearly simultaneous outbreaks in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.