Oh No, No Handshakes, No Helmets ,Congo Prepares for Ebola

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A mobile blood-testing lab. Hand-washing stations on street corners. Motorcycle taxi drivers forbidden from sharing spare helmets. If Ebola is coming, the city of Goma in eastern Congo wants to be ready.

An outbreak suspected of killing 43 people is spreading across the lush farmlands of eastern Congo, where ethnic and military conflicts threaten to hobble containment efforts.

Goma, a lakeside city of 1 million people near the Rwandan border, is more than 350 kilometers (220 miles) south from the epicenter of the outbreak in the town of Mangina in North Kivu province, and no cases have been confirmed there.

But the virus has already spread to neighboring Ituri province, and the number of infected is rising daily. Residents in the busy trading hub are taking no chances.

"It's not only me who fears the appearance of Ebola. The whole community here is scared," said shopkeeper Dany Mupenda. "To protect ourselves we stick to the rules of hygiene to avoid being one of the victims of this epidemic."

UNICEF has set up hand-washing stations around the city. Health workers check residents' temperatures in public places and at the entrance to the city. The hospital has set up a mobile lab to test suspected cases.