I myself visited the province again twice, in March and May 1977, no cases were reported since November 22, 1976. There were some difficulties in carrying out surveillance. The area to be covered was very large. The province is 225 miles long and 50-100 miles wide. Parts of it are mountains and some of the feeder roads had bridges broken or overgrown with shrubs and grass.
Rural settlements are very scattered.
Azande live in small clans whose homes are often 1-3 miles apart. Shortage of fuel also restricted our movements. If this Ebola virus infection had the epidemiological features of smallpox infection, I do not think we would have contained the epidemic in view of the acute shortage of manpower and supplies and insufficient logistic support.