In these more volatile situations, contacts are often harder to find, as the population is more mobile and could be hiding from militias ― making it harder for contact tracers to locate and contain the outbreak. .
Only two dozen or so roadside bombs were reported found, however, raising a question of whether others had been hidden by the militias for another day.
After the operation, less than half a mile from the health clinic, my patrol came under attack, first with a roadside bomb and then with small-arms fire from militia hidden nearby.
A man in a robe known as a dishdasha, who seemed pleased that a security force was finally passing through his otherwise unprotected neighborhood, volunteered that militia fighters had hidden a bomb near a local power generator.
Well off the main road, the militia training camps are hidden from view near this bustling river port city, a major shipment point for relief supplies to the famished populations of the Islamist-occupied north.
At the time, 22 family members of Tutsi nuns were still hidden in the convent, undisturbed by the militia.
American soldiers uncovered a cache of weapons hidden near the airport in Kandahar, while the local Afghan militia continued to hunt down Taliban officials and Al Qaeda fighters who fled as the city fell to anti-Taliban forces last month.
Militias have dug in positions along the main roads, and their bases are hidden amidst residential neighbourhoods.
While weapons are no longer carried openly in Kandahar by people other than the anti-Taliban militia, few have been surrendered to the fledgling government there, and many are believed to be hidden in the city and surrounding towns.
That's not to say there aren't militia wackos hiding in the hills, trading toxic nonsense about Obama's secret Muslim past.
