“The Ministry of Health has done all it can do. The lack of fuel has provoked the worst crisis that I have seen in forty years. I don’t see how we can get out of it without fuel.
“Unlike the previous epidemic, young children are the most threatened. They’re vulnerable to diarrheal diseases. When they become severely or somewhat malnourished, their immunity declines considerably. The majority of our cases are children. Our clinic downtown is saturated.”
The only silver lining is that the lack of fuel has also stopped public transportation and people are not moving around. “The epidemic can’t spread around the whole country in a few weeks the way it did in 2010.” Contingency plans should be put in place in the provinces where it has not yet reached, says Dr. Pape.