Ebola outbreak: A student whose family has been killed by the virus passes a quarantine entrance exam at the university

Claude Mabowa Sasi had lost his mother, a brother and sister of Ebola. Instead of fearing death when he was diagnosed with the disease, the young man had a different concern: how would he pbad his entrance exams to the university?

His mother's greatest hope was that Mabowa go to college. To do this, it would be necessary to pbad the ferry, or ferry.

But the exams are held once a year in the Congo and Mabowa, 21, was detained in medical isolation, unable to sit in the same room as other candidates.

Medical staff attending him at an Ebola treatment center run by the Alliance for International Medical Action, or ALIMA, then came up with a solution.

They found a school official willing to monitor the exam because Mabowa had taken him safely behind a window. The papers were pbaded to Mabowa without touching him.

Once finished, he placed his pages one by one in front of the window to photograph them with a smartphone, then send them by email to the managers. Then, his work and his pencil were cremated. For the oral part of the exam, the questions were put to him through the glbad.

On Saturday, Mabowa finished the last of his exams. He waits for results while he is still in isolation, where he will remain until the virus is gone from his body. He hopes to study political science at Kisangani University.

"My mother had said:" My son, you have to study, if you have your degree, you will succeed in life, even if your parents are gone, you still have your life to live, "he said. he declared.

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has killed more than 1,700 people since its inception almost a year ago. Health workers are mobilizing to contain the epidemic, trying to locate, vaccinate and isolate all people who have been in contact with people carrying the highly contagious virus.

The only people authorized in the presence of Mabowa are the survivors, immune to the virus, and health workers dressed in protective gear from head to toe.

Mabowa had already lost his older sister when he developed a migraine and a fever and that he had lost the appetite. But since he's recently been vaccinated against the Ebola virus, he's gotten rid of his symptoms as side effects of the shot. He finally went to the Ebola center in Beni when his illness prevented him from continuing his studies.

After getting a positive Ebola test, he started asking nurses and doctors how he could still write his exams. Studying was difficult because Mabowa no longer had access to his notebooks or other documents.

ALIMA staff members, moved by his desire to pbad his exams, even brought Mabowa a school uniform that he could wear while pbading the ferry: a white shirt and a navy blue pants.

"The fact that we pbaded her exams is an important step in her recovery and recovery," said Goretti Muhumira, a psychologist at ALIMA.

The hardest part, said Mabowa, was the oral exams, and not just because he was nervous.

"Il était difficile pour moi de bien les entendre à travers le verre, ils ont donc dû se répéter plusieurs fois avant que je puisse comprendre la question", a-t-il déclaré.

Now he's waiting.

"Je n'ai pas tout perdu et je suis confiant de réussir et d'honorer la mémoire de ma mère", a-t-il déclaré. "Si elle était toujours là, je pense qu'elle serait fière de moi."

AP