Anne-Marie Connor has an impossible job, but just as impossible would be getting her to tell you that herself. She prefers framing impossibilities as problems, and tackling problems, including seemingly insurmountable ones, is a good part of what makes her tick.
So, how is this for a problem: Connor, a Sarnia, Ont., native, is a humanitarian worker working remotely from a townhouse in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country known for, among other things, political corruption, crushing poverty, high infant mortality rates, an alphabet soup of rebel groups committing atrocities against innocent civilians, measles outbreaks, polio outbreaks and, lately, an Ebola outbreak that has claimed 2,200 lives since August 2018, and was within 48 hours of being declared over when two new cases recently popped up.
If all that misery isn’t enough Connor, the national director of World Vision’s humanitarian mission in DRC, and her staff of 500, now have COVID-19 to contend with, a calamity she describes as a “crisis within a crisis.”
“It is a lot to wrap your head around,” the 40-year-old says. “We felt we were at least going to put Ebola fully behind us before tackling COVID-19.”
Anne-Marie Connor, humanitarian worker, pictured on a brighter day for the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
World Vision
In Canada, the federal government has thrown billions at the pandemic. Money that won’t stop the economic bleeding, or save every job, but cash that can at least mitigate some of the hurt. In DRC, the government, such as it is, is widely distrusted by the public. There isn’t any money to bail people out, while an already fragile health-care system counts 65 ventilators in a country of 80 million souls, an estimated 80 per cent of whom must exit the home each morning to earn enough to feed their families at night.
In other words, the Congolese aren’t stockpiling food and toilet paper and binging on Netflix. They are just barely hanging on; social distancing isn’t an option. In early April, Connor was offered a way out, and invited to jump on a flight home organized by the Canadian Embassy.
But she gave up her seat to someone else instead.
“Anne-Marie is like the captain of a ship,” says her mother, Madeleine, in Sarnia. “She couldn’t abandon ship in the middle of a crisis and leave everybody to fend for themselves. People always ask, aren’t you worried about her? But we don’t fret. Our Anne-Marie is tough.”
Connor has two older brothers, Martin and Mathieu, who helped with the toughening process, while her parents, Madeleine and Ian, a doctor, travelled widely with their kids, exposing them to the world beyond Canada. As a teenager, Connor saw Stephen Lewis, the Canadian diplomat and one-time United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDs in Africa, speak at an event in Sarnia.
“I think it made a lasting impression on her,” Madeleine says.
Connor admits it sounds corny, but she believes in “social justice.” She views the world, carved as it is between “haves and have-nots,” as desperately unfair, which is reason enough for her to want to try and change it. Of course, even tough as nails do-gooders have sleepless nights, and Connor is no exception. Lately the worries have been manifold: What if one of her staff gets sick? What if someone gets robbed? How can she secure enough PPEs to keep a 500-person team safe on an NGO-budget? What if she gets sick?
Typically, she travels two weeks a month, visiting sites around the country. Now she is under virtual house arrest, working from her dining room table and relying on yoga, an English spaniel named Imbwa — that’s Swahili for “dog” — and a husband, Ryan O’Reilly, to keep her company as they attempt to socially distance in a city of 11 million people.
DRC has reported close to 400 cases and a handful of deaths from COVID-19, numbers that were calculated with a limited capacity to test for the virus.
“We are absolutely worried about getting sick,” Connor said.
The initial national crisis, Ebola, kills about half of those who contract it. Those afflicted suffer high fevers, diarrhea and bleeding. The virus is transmitted by bodily fluids, often moving from the sick person to the person caring for them or preparing them for burial, once they are dead.
When Connor travels to Ebola-impacted areas, she washes her hands every “five steps.” To help spread the word on good hand hygiene, she and her team forged relationships with local faith leaders, often among the most trusted members in communities. The problem now is, people aren’t supposed to be gathering, including for church, so how to educate them about the new potential killer in their midst?
That message has been incredibly hard to push through
One strategy has involved creating a COVID-alert on Whatsapp, the mobile messaging application. Cellphone saturation is high in DRC, even if incomes are not. The alert echoes the directives heard in Canada during the early days of the pandemic. Wash your hands for 20 seconds, and stop shaking hands. As an added cultural adaptation, Congolese are being asked to refrain from kissing one another on the cheek three times, as per custom.
“That message has been incredibly hard to push through,” Connor says.
But she hasn’t stopped trying.
It is a race, as she sees it, and if COVID-19 wins the suffering exacted upon a country that has already suffered so much could be, well, awful.
Connor and her husband fly home every August, “like clockwork.” With no fixed address, they flit between family and friends, recharging, reconnecting. Among the things she delights in most is watching the sunset over Lake Huron. When she will see one next, she can’t say.
“We’ve been eyeing our August trip anxiously,” Connor says. “But it is looking less and less likely. If we don’t get home, we’ll miss the sunsets – the best in the world.”
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
