Spread of Ebola in DRC outpacing' response efforts, warns WHO

The World Health Organization warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is advancing faster than response operations. Neighboring countries were described as being at high risk and were urged to take immediate action. The WHO reported 220 suspected deaths in the current outbreak and said the epidemic is outpacing efforts to scale up. Response activities have been hindered by attacks on health facilities in Ituri province, including repeated assaults on a hospital in Mongbwalu that led to patient escapes and a death during an attempt to flee. Similar violence occurred when a treatment center was set on fire after authorities refused to release a body for unsafe burial. Authorities manage burials for containment because bodies can be highly contagious.

"“The World Health Organization has warned that the Ebola outbreak is outpacing response efforts and countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are at high risk from the disease.”"

"“We are urgently scaling up operations, but at the moment the epidemic is outpacing us,” said the WHO's director-general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as he urged neighbouring countries to take immediate action. Addressing an online meeting of the African Union about the outbreak, he also announced there had been 220 suspected deaths so far in the current Ebola outbreak and that he would travel to the DRC on Tuesday with Chikwe Ihekweazu, executive director of WHO's health emergencies programme.”"

"“First on Saturday and again on Sunday, residents of Mongbwalu town in the DRC attacked the Mongbwalu general referral hospital. Dr Richard Lokodu, medical director of the facility, told Reuters that 18 Ebola patients had fled on Saturday after unidentified individuals burned tents, erected by Medecins Sans Frontieres, where patients were being isolated. The hospital came under four waves of attacks on Sunday, he added, by young people mobilised by relatives of a religious leader who died of Ebola.”"

"“The perpetrators of the attacks had wanted the bodies of the Ebola victims released for burial, Lokodu added. In a similar incident, a crowd on Thursday set fire to a treatment centre in Rwampara, near Bunia, after authorities refused to give them the body of a victim they wanted to bury themselves. The burial of bodies, which can be highly contagious, is handled by authorities for containment of the disease, but some families”"

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