RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And there's a bit of good news about the battle against Ebola. Liberia and Sierra Leone appear - key word there, appear - to be turning a corner on Ebola. But neighboring Guinea still faces challenges. Some people there still hide people suffering from Ebola at home, and unsafe traditional burial rituals are helping the virus spread. Sixty percent of Ebola cases in Guinea are related to those burials, according to the World Health Organization. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton traveled to Guinea's third-largest city where the country's leading Muslim cleric is calling on people to adopt safer funeral practices.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing in foreign language).
OFEIBEA QUIST-ARCTON, BYLINE: Kindia is an important city and a major crossroads in Guinea, a country the size of Oregon. But Kindia has had its fair share of fear and suspicion about Ebola.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing in foreign language).
QUIST-ARCTON: Over the weekend, Guinea's Grand Imam, El Hadj Mamadou Salio Camara, gathered together hundreds of his fellow clerics and read the riot act in the local language, Soussou.
EL HADJ MAMADOU SALIO CAMARA: (Speaking Soussou).
QUIST-ARCTON: "With Ebola, you have to do more," roars the barrel-bellied cleric with his white beard and mustache, distinguished in a snow-white boubou, the traditional flowing gown of West Africa. El Hadj Camara tells his fellow imams that Guinea must adapt if its customs mean people are dying of Ebola. He repeated this after his address in an interview with NPR.
CAMARA: (Through interpreter) There is nothing in the Quran that says you must wash, kiss or hold your dead loved ones. I agree, tradition is important, but everyone must find a way to respect the dead and observe burial rites without putting themselves or anyone else in danger of catching Ebola.
CAMARA: (Speaking Soussou).
QUIST-ARCTON: It may not seem an obvious partnership, but the American ambassador to Guinea has linked up with the grand imam to fight Ebola. Alex Laskaris says the answer to stopping the spread of the virus won't come from outsiders. He says it takes leadership, with the grand imam and others playing a key role.
U.S. AMBASSADOR ALEX LASKARIS: One of the things I tell people about Guinea is the state is weak. It has been weakened over time through poor management. Society is very strong. And I think in contrast to Liberia and Sierra Leone where the war has destroyed everything, the fabric of traditional leadership in Guinea, whether it's religious or customary, is really strong. And these guys get respect the old-fashioned way, by earning it.
QUIST-ARCTON: Headmaster Karamba Salim Diaby is also an imam. He says many people deny the existence of Ebola because they claim not to have seen anyone dying of the hemorrhagic virus. Others, he says, blame foreigners for importing Ebola into Guinea through ignorance.
KARAMBA SALIM DIABY: They just accuse, you know, you Western people for injecting this virus into Guinea and Liberia and Sierra Leone. You know, there is a confidence crisis between the population and the government. So they don't believe in them. So that they think that the Red Cross, when they come, they try to contaminate people. So this is why they resist against this Ebola problem.
LASKARIS: (Foreign language spoken).
QUIST-ARCTON: The U.S. ambassador also addressed the assembled imams in Soussou and French. Laskaris spent the past week traveling around southern Basse Cote, the lower coastal area of Guinea that includes Kindia and other areas of persistent denial and resistance to Ebola. He says he learned that there can be no change unless Guinea's customs are honored.
LASKARIS: And above all, it involves an absolute respect for the rituals of death. And one of the areas we've had problems in Basse Cote was the perception that some of the safe burial teams were less than fully respectable of religious tradition and of cultural tradition. There is no future for Ebola treatment in Guinea if we're not checking that box.
QUIST-ARCTON: That's why Laskaris says he's here meeting the religious leaders. Burial teams are dispatched to ensure that dead bodies still toxic with Ebola are safely removed from homes and treatment centers. But unsafe burials continue, proving a challenge to the government's target of zero Ebola cases by mid-March. Those caught hiding Ebola patients or carrying out secret burials could face prosecution. Sitting behind rows and rows of imams in caps and colorful boubous, women wearing white listened attentively to their male religious leaders. Women are the principal caregivers of people kept at home who may be Ebola sufferers. Hadja Bintou Conte is a mother of five.
HADJA BINTOU CONTE: (Foreign language spoken).
QUIST-ARCTON: Hadja Conte believes Ebola exists, and says she shares that message in her community but that it'll take time to persuade some naysayers. The grand imam says he's confident that he and fellow religious leaders will gain confidence of people currently in denial about Ebola. But he admits it's a battle.
CAMARA: (Foreign language spoken).
QUIST-ARCTON: The imam's ally, U.S. Ambassador Laskaris, says they're learning how best to relay that message.
LASKARIS: Radio's important here. The Internet is not a factor. This is old-school, pre-digital diplomacy. It's making contact eye to eye, person to person, sitting under the mango tree, and it's also listening to people's fears and finding out what is motivating young people to throw stones, women to bar us from entering their houses. In the meantime, Ebola, you know, it's like a forest fire. You've got to get every single ember out because that one ember you forget can reignite the whole thing in Guinea and in the region.
QUIST-ARCTON: The same sentiment you hear across Guinea's borders in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Kindia.
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News.