Death toll in DR Congo reaches 600 as Ebola spreads
The government says new suspected Ebola cases have been reported in some previously unaffected areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, bringing the death toll in the country’s latest outbreak to 600.
According to the health ministry of the Democratic Republic of Congo, suspected cases have been recorded in Tshopo and Haut-Uele provinces, indicating that the disease continues to spread beyond its epicenter in Ituri.
A government report published late Wednesday said two new cases were suspected in Kisangani in Tshopo province.
The minister did not say how many cases were suspected in Haut-Uele.
The total number of confirmed cases across the country reached 1759.
One of the two suspected cases in Tshopo has been linked to the Nia-Nia health zone in Ituri province, where the first cases were reported, while the other case “has no apparent geographic link to known outbreaks,” according to the report.
Authorities were investigating.
After weeks of transmission of the disease without official detection, authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo declared a new Ebola epidemic on May 15, according to the World Health Organization.
The latest outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.
Ebola response workers in the country’s northeast protested outside three treatment centers on Thursday and said they had not been fully paid for their work.
Dozens of Ebola response team members gathered outside the Center Medical Evangelique (CME), Elikya and Salama treatment centers in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province.
One of the protests outside CME was dispersed by police.
It was not immediately clear whether the protests disrupted operations at treatment centers.
Speaking to reporters in Bunia, Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba acknowledged there were problems “on the human resources side of the response”, that is, ensuring that lists of people due to be paid are up-to-date and accurate.
A Congolese Democratic Health official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, told Reuters that negotiations were ongoing with workers who had threatened to go on strike, but no strike had started so far.
Last week, clinical trials for the treatment began after researchers launched a highly anticipated study in hopes of combating the Bundibugyo virus.
Efforts to contain the virus have also been hampered by a funding gap, attacks on health centers and ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicenter of the outbreak.
via Reuters
