The recent Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus has reportedly claimed more than 3,000 lives, and more than twice as many reported cases, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, analysts warn that roughly 26 million people across the region are experiencing a food insecurity crisis, a compounding factor that increases both the spread and lethality of the virus.
“Hunger and disease are old companions,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said in a statement referring to the outbreak. “People weakened by hunger are far more vulnerable to infections.”
Ebola weakens the immune system, making it more difficult for the body to fight the disease and recover once infected. Healthy food can both support an immune system response and improve conditions for medications to work properly, thus accelerating recovery, Grace Kwakezime Mongame, emergency nutritionist at the World Food Programme in DRC, told Mongabay in a call.
A lack of reliable food can force people out of their homes where they potentially spread or contract the disease from others in the community.
“Since the disease is transmitted through contact, moving around risks creating new layers of infection; the aim is to keep people within a single environment, Kwakezime said.
WFP also provides food to patients’ families, especially dependent children, so the sick can rest and recover instead of leaving isolation to care for their dependents.
The need for food can also drive people to hunt in forests like the DRC’s Virunga National Park, which can increase the risk of spreading the virus to humans and wildlife alike, including endangered gorillas. Between 2002 and 2003, roughly 5,000 western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) died from Ebola in the Republic of Congo, Mongabay has reported.
Ebola is a zoonotic disease that originally spread from wildlife to humans who came in contact with infected bodily fluids, like blood from butchering, or ate infected meat.
However, wild meat or “bushmeat” is a vital source of protein for many and not easily replaced. “Forest use is often essential for livelihoods, food security, medicine, trade, and survival,” researchers note in a recent study. “Narratives focusing narrowly on the risk of bushmeat hunting become stigmatizing when detached from the poverty, insecurity, displacement, and limited alternatives that shape daily decisions.”
The government needs to create economic opportunities, work and agricultural practices outside national parks to reduce the dependence of local communities on forest resources, Dr. Eddy Kambale, head veterinarian of Gorilla Doctors in DRC, told Mongabay.
The lives and health of humans and wildlife are interdependent, and losing balance threatens life on the planet, Kambale said.
Banner image: Carl Skau, acting executive director of the World Food Programme, left, checks food prepared by a WFP volunteer at the Rwampara Ebola treatment center in Ituri, eastern DRC, on July 29. Image by AP Photo/Dieudonne Dirole.
