In Meliandou Guinea, as in many other villages across Ebola country, the disease is shrouded in mystery, surrounded by suspicion and rumors. People here still believe that Ebola was disseminated by white people seeking the deaths of blacks, including through a measles vaccination campaign; by a laboratory testing bats to create a vaccination against the virus; by politicians from a rival tribe bent on killing off the forest people; by white miners looking to exploit a nearby mountain of iron ore.
Since the second phase of the Ebola outbreak when the World Health Organization and others became more involved in containing and preventing the disease spread, swarms of experts from epidemiologist, infectiologists, biologists joined health care workers and anthropologists. These were brought in for a different purpose: to understand and translate the behavior and beliefs of some of the local populations. (AP)
Lansana Kamano, right, a traditional healer, sits in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 kms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Sunday Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay
Children listen to the village chief in the communal room in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 mms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Thursday Nov. 20, 2014.
Kissi Dembadouno sits in his home in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 kms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Thursday Nov. 20, 2014. Demnadouno lost his wife, daughter and two grandchildren to the deadly disease. He is Etienne Ouamouno's father in law. Etienne Ouamouno's 2-year old son Emile is widely recognized by researchers as Patient Zero, the first person to have died of Ebola back on December 28 last year. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Etienne Ouamouno, center, Isaac Dembadouno, right, and village chief Amadou Kamano sit under a tree repeatedly smoked by villagers to catch bats in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 kms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Saturday Nov. 22, 2014. The official theory on how Ebola started is that somehow the virus was transmitted from its reservoir host, thought to be fruit bats, to humans and spread through the region plagued by bad roads, dense population and a problematic health care system. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Children listen to the village chief in the communal room in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 mms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
A child grabs food from a woman in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 kms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Shows the list of Ebola victims in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 mms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, Thursday Nov. 20, 2014. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Photography by Jerome Delay/AP Photo
