Luo is a type of ghost or evil spirit. No one knows about it, but it comes and takes you in the night. Ugandan health officials suspected, and tests in South Africa two weeks ago confirmed, that this ghost was real and goes by the name Ebola. A lethal virus first identified in northern Congo in 1976, Ebola attacks almost everything in the body except bone, destroying the immune system in fast-forward and causing organs to melt down, hemorrhage and then bleed out through the body's orifices. The period between infection and the onset of sickness is three to 14 days.
Death follows within a fortnight.
Ebola seems to jump species, can mutate, and occurs regularly every few years in areas where civilization butts up against nature. There is no known cure. Experts say they cannot pinpoint the first infection in this outbreak until the virus is contained. But if Esther Owete was the first case, then ground zero is her mud hut, now boarded up. There is no one here to look after you now.