BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Congo Ebola The outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people, authorities said, as they struggle to contain what has become the Ebola outbreak is fastest growing in history.
The latest figures published Thursday by the Ministry of Health show 4,018 deaths out of 8,300 cases recorded since. The hearth was declared in eastern Congo on May 15.
Meanwhile, some health workers gathered at the epicenter of Ituri province to demand payment of salaries owed to them. The demonstrators, who included members of the monitoring team, held signs saying: “No money, no data! » and “No payments for months”.
Some workers were not paid for August and September, said Biongi Beiza, one of the protesters in Bunia, Ituri’s capital. “There is no explanation from the administration,” he said.
Congolese authorities did not immediately address the issue. Frontline workers have gone on strike several times since the outbreak began, further hampering efforts to contain the disease.
A senior U.N. official said an Ebola-hit IDP camp housing a transit center for infected patients was burned by soldiers earlier this week as they searched for weapons in Kigonze, a suburb of Bunia, forcing 19,000 people in the camp to flee.
Creating such transit and treatment centers has been an uphill battle, requiring money and staff, all of which are in short supply, said Julien Harneis, the U.N.’s lead Ebola coordinator. “When we lose a center, it means we lose capacity, we lose investment and we have to start again. And most importantly, it means people don’t have access to the care they actually need,” Harneis said.
Infected aid worker evacuated to Netherlands
An aid worker from Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders, was infected with the Ebola virus while working in Congo, the group said in a statement.
The worker arrived in the Netherlands on Thursday evening aboard a special medical flight and was transferred to a high-level isolation unit, Leiden University Medical Center said in a statement.
“The human cost of this crisis is unprecedented in the DRC, where communities are facing the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the country,” MSF said.
At least 50 health workers have died after contracting the virus.
Mobile laboratories help detect cases quickly
Local authorities tried to contain the epidemic using mobile laboratories. In Butembo, an Associated Press journalist observed a medical team operating one of these laboratories near an Ebola treatment center on Thursday.
Test results that previously took 72 hours can now be obtained in six hours thanks to mobile laboratories, said Lota Kalubi, a doctor at the treatment center.
The laboratories have also made it easier to access places that are usually difficult to reach, said Michel Ngimba of the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Butembo. “So we can go there, if today we have an emergency, for example in Katwa, we can start the vehicle and we can move the laboratory to Katwa,” said Ngimba.
Insecurity and community resistance hamper containment efforts
The World Health Organization recently sounded the alarm over the rapid spread of the virus into new health zones, straining limited resources. The current epidemic is on track to surpass the deadliest on record, The regional epidemic in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people, according to the WHO.
The number of new confirmed cases is falling, but this could be attributed to insecurity and difficulties in getting communities to cooperate in some of the hotspots, the Africa CDC said on Thursday. While the spread of the disease has slowed in some regions, it has accelerated in others.
Confirmed cases increased from about 850 cases and 470 deaths per week in mid-July to an average of 490 cases and 230 deaths in September.
A Congolese politician was beaten to death earlier this week in one of the emerging hotspots after defending government measures to tackle the outbreak, highlighting tensions and mistrust within communities.
The authorities last month launched a village-centered approach This involved working with local leaders to educate the population about the virus, but these efforts were met with resistance from residents who view Ebola as a hoax. There is also deep distrust of the country’s government, particularly for its handling of past Ebola outbreaks and chronic corruption.
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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria. Sébastien Kitsa Musayi in Butembo, Congo, Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, and Mike Corder in the Netherlands contributed.
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