Congo Curtails Funeral Wakes In Ebola Outbreak As WHO Upgrades Risk Assessment

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Authorities in northeastern Congo on Friday banned funerals and gatherings of more than 50 people in an effort to curb a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak in a region where health workers are grappling with a lack of resources and backlash from angry residents.

The World Health Organization said the outbreak now poses a “very high” risk to Congo, down from its previous “high” category, but the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 82 cases and seven deaths had been confirmed in Congo but the outbreak was believed to be “much larger.”

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks after the first known death in Congo’s Ituri Province. Authorities tested for another, more common Ebola virus, and it came back negative. There are currently 750 suspected cases and 177 suspicious deaths, but the number is expected to increase as surveillance expands.

“We are trying to catch up,” Congolese Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner told the AP. “It’s a race against time.”

The supplies were being taken to Ituri in the northeastern corner of the country, where nearly a million people have been displaced by armed conflict over mineral resources. Kayikwamba Wagner said accelerating contact tracing is a priority.

AP reporters found emergency treatment centers empty in the Bunia provincial capital and doctors in the nearby town of Bambu using expired medical masks while caring for patients with suspected Ebola.

The state government said on Friday it had temporarily banned funerals and gatherings of more than 50 people. It was stated that funeral ceremonies should be held in strict compliance with health protocols. Authorities also prevented journalists from working by demanding permission to report on the epidemic.

The disease has also been reported in two Congolese provinces south of Ituri, where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group controls several key cities, including Goma and Bukavu, where the rebels have reported two cases: North Kivu and South Kivu.

The group said Friday that it has created a crisis team to combat the outbreak.

Kayikwamba Wagner said the outbreak of the disease in rebel-controlled areas was worrying because “M23, no matter how ambitious, is completely ill-equipped to fight the disease.”

He said the Congolese government and rebels were not communicating about the outbreak.

Efforts by health officials and aid groups have faced pushback from communities due to misinformation or situations where medical policy clashes with local traditions, such as funeral rites.

An Ebola treatment center in Rwampara was set on fire on Thursday by youths who became angry when they were prevented from collecting the body of a friend who apparently died of Ebola, according to witnesses and police.

The dangerous business of burying suspected victims is carried on by the authorities wherever possible; because corpses can be highly contagious, leading to further spread when preparing for burial or when people gather for funerals.

Julienne Lusenge, president of Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, a local aid group, said public anger was mostly fueled by misinformation. “We have lived through years of conflict and hardship, so rumors spread easily,” he said.

He said some churches are telling their congregations that the epidemic is fake and that divine protection makes medical care unnecessary.

In Mongbwalu, the mining town of Ituri province where the outbreak is believed to have originated, Lokana Moro Faustin lost her 16-year-old daughter to the disease and lamented that she could not properly say goodbye to her due to Ebola restrictions.

“At first we thought it was malaria, but then vomiting, high fever, nosebleeds and bloody diarrhea came along,” he said in pain.

The body of the young man who died on May 15 was taken from the hospital by expert teams and taken directly to the cemetery for safe burial. Faustin was unable to say goodbye because he was in self-isolation, and it pained him to have his daughter buried by people who were not his family.

Christian Djakisa, coffin workshop manager in Bunia, said demand has increased since the start of the pandemic. “We are here at all hours to make coffins,” he said.

The United Nations said on Friday it was transferring $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to step up the response in Congo and the region.

The United States has pledged $23 million in funding to support the response in Congo and Uganda and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in affected areas.

Lusenge said his group’s small hospital near Bunia lacks basic protective equipment, exposing nurses and doctors to possible infections. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses, but we need much more than that,” Lusenge said.

Public health officials say a person infected with Ebola usually transmits the virus to one or two other people; This virus is less contagious than measles, whooping cough and chickenpox, where one person can infect about a dozen people.

However, researchers note that transmission rates have varied in past Ebola outbreaks and that they are still trying to determine how contagious the Bundibugyo virus is.

Both the WHO and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believe the outbreak is larger than cases reported so far.

Experts say the region’s already weak health infrastructure and surveillance capacity have been further weakened by international aid cuts. The International Rescue Committee said it was forced to halt surveillance activities in three of five sites in Ituri last year due to funding cuts.

armed conflict Developments in the region further complicate efforts to cope with the crisis. In order for aid groups to reach Mongbwalu from Bunia, they need to be prepared for possible attacks by armed groups.

“The epidemic can still be brought under control, but the window for action is narrow,” Gabriela Arenas of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Friday.

Pronczuk reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva; Always the Same Bagalwa in Bunia, Congo; Jean Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo; Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia; Mark Banchereau and Wilson McMakin in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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