More than 70 Congo medics infected with Ebola since outbreak started, WHO says

By Emma Farge

NAIROBI, June 19 (Reuters) – 75 healthcare workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have contracted Ebola and 17 have died since the current outbreak began there, a senior World Health Organization official said on Friday.

Ebola was thought to be circulating for months before the outbreak was first declared by Congolese authorities on May 15; This meant that many healthcare workers were exposed to the disease before they even knew it existed. Even now, health officials say they are running out of basic supplies to protect themselves, such as gloves and masks.

“It’s a really high price that the system pays, the health system, because we don’t have enough health workers in the DRC,” WHO emergency director Marie Roseline Belizaire said at a press conference via video link from the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to WHO data, Congo is one of the countries with the lowest density of healthcare workers relative to population; There are only 11 people per 10,000 people. Belizaire said China and Uganda sent medical teams to the country.

He added that the WHO was providing psychological support to some medics who were afraid to treat patients after seeing many of their colleagues fall ill.

“It can break your heart as they tell you how they experienced this, how they got infected.”

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Vincent Mumo Nzilani; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Alison Williams)