WHO warns that Congo ebola outbreak is at a ‘tipping point’
AID agencies say the Ebola outbreak in Democratic
Republic of Congo could be tipping into a wider crisis as the number of
new cases spiked and violence grounded health workers for a second
time.
The disease is believed to have
infected 194 people and killed 122 since the outbreak started in eastern
Congo in July, according to the health ministry. The number of new
cases per day has more than doubled since September, partly because
worsening security is hampering the response, said the International
Rescue Committee.
The outbreak is centred in the city of Beni, where rebels killed at least 18 people in an attack last month, forcing health workers to suspend operations for several days.
An ebola outbreak in western Africa between 2016 and 2016 claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to World Health Organisation data. It was the worst ebola epidemic in history.
Four civilians were killed in another attack near Beni on Tuesday, according to the United Nations. The IRC again suspended programs on Wednesday, resuming on Thursday afternoon but only within Beni city limits, a spokeswoman said.
The region has been a tinder box of armed rebellion and ethnic killing since two civil wars in the late 1990s.
The outbreak is expected to last at least another three or four months but if insecurity continues there could be “a much larger wave building,” said Peter Salama, emergency response chief of the World Health Organisation, on Thursday.
The outbreak is centred in the city of Beni, where rebels killed at least 18 people in an attack last month, forcing health workers to suspend operations for several days.
An ebola outbreak in western Africa between 2016 and 2016 claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people, mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to World Health Organisation data. It was the worst ebola epidemic in history.
Four civilians were killed in another attack near Beni on Tuesday, according to the United Nations. The IRC again suspended programs on Wednesday, resuming on Thursday afternoon but only within Beni city limits, a spokeswoman said.
The current spike in Ebola cases and deaths is extremely worrying, said Michelle Gayer, IRC’s senior director of emergency health, on Thursday last week.
It’s likely that the forced suspension in programming due to insecurity and community resistance in and around Beni are major factors in this, she said.
The region has been a tinder box of armed rebellion and ethnic killing since two civil wars in the late 1990s.
The outbreak is expected to last at least another three or four months but if insecurity continues there could be “a much larger wave building,” said Peter Salama, emergency response chief of the World Health Organisation, on Thursday.
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