Congo Ebola deaths cross 4,000 as attacks and strikes hamper response
Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak has crossed 4,000 deaths, authorities said, as efforts to contain the virus continue to face major setbacks. Health Ministry figures released on Thursday showed 4,018 deaths out of nearly 8,300 confirmed cases in what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
The outbreak, announced on May 15 and caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, has no known treatment or vaccine. Containment efforts are being slowed by unpaid health workers, insecurity, attacks on facilities, and resistance from some communities.
In Bunia, in the heart of the outbreak, some health workers gathered to demand payment of overdue wages but were quickly dispersed by officials. The protesters included surveillance team members who identify people exposed to infected patients. They waved placards that read, "No money, no data!" and "No payment for months." Front-line workers have gone on strike several times since the outbreak began, further disrupting the response.
A senior UN official said an Ebola-hit camp housing a transit centre for infected patients was burned by soldiers earlier this week while they were looking for weapons in Kigonze, on the outskirts of Bunia. The fire forced 19,000 people in the camp to flee.
"The enormous challenge of halting the spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) just became even harder after a key transit centre for patients requiring treatment burned down in Ituri province," the United Nations said. Julien Harneis, the UN's senior Ebola coordinator, said creating Ebola transit and treatment centres has been difficult because money and staff are both in short supply. "When we lose a centre, that means we lose capacity, we lose investment, and we have to start again. And above all, it means that people do not get access to the care that they really need," Harneis said.
Separately, an aid worker with Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, was infected with Ebola while working in Congo, the group said. The worker arrived late on Thursday night in the Netherlands on a special medical flight and was transferred to a high-level isolation unit at Leiden University Medical Centre. "The human cost of this crisis is unprecedented in the DRC, with communities facing the largest Ebola disease outbreak ever recorded in the country," MSF said. More than 50 health workers have died after contracting the virus.
The World Health Organisation has recently warned about the virus spreading rapidly into new health zones, putting further pressure on limited resources. Africa CDC said the number of newly confirmed cases is falling, but that may be because of insecurity and difficulties in getting communities in some hot spots to cooperate. While the spread has slowed in some areas, it has accelerated in others, creating what experts see as a delicate situation.
Confirmed cases have eased in recent weeks, from about 850 cases and 470 deaths a week in mid-July to an average of 490 cases and 230 deaths in September. Overall, however, the outbreak saw a similar rise of 33 per cent in both confirmed cases and deaths through September.
Tensions around the response were underlined earlier this week when a Congolese politician was attacked and beaten to death for defending government measures to deal with the outbreak. Marie-Celestin Karondwa, a local official of the ruling Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, was attacked on Sunday at his home in Butembo, an Ebola hot spot in eastern North Kivu province. His house was then set on fire, and he later died in hospital from his injuries.
Widespread mistrust of health workers and the authorities has continued to hamper efforts to slow the country's 17th Ebola outbreak. Authorities last month launched a village-centred approach, but it has met resistance from residents who dismiss Ebola as a hoax. The outbreak has now killed more than 4,000 people, even as officials struggle with violence, weak resources and distrust on the ground.
