Ebola deaths in DR Congo top 500 as health workers threaten strike
WHO data put the outbreak at 506 deaths and 1,561 confirmed cases, while staff in Ituri province warn over pay and conditions.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
The Ebola death toll in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has passed 500, according to the World Health Organization, as the country faces a strike threat from frontline health workers. The figures underline the scale of an outbreak that WHO has already described as having the worst first month on record.
A WHO situation report dated July 4, citing Congolese health authorities, listed at least 506 deaths and 1,561 confirmed Ebola cases in DR Congo. In Uganda, which borders DR Congo, the WHO data showed two deaths and 20 confirmed cases.
The outbreak is DR Congo’s 17th Ebola epidemic and was formally declared on May 15, according to health officials cited by WHO. It is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare Ebola strain for which no vaccine or treatment is available.
Trial begins for rare strain
Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can cause haemorrhagic fever. Over the past half-century, the disease has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa, according to the reported health data.
DR Congo’s deadliest Ebola outbreak occurred from 2018 to 2020, when nearly 2,300 people died among 3,500 recorded cases, according to the same account. The current outbreak has raised concern because officials have not identified the first known patient and still need to trace potentially tens of thousands of contacts of infected people.
The WHO said a clinical trial of two treatments for the Bundibugyo strain began on Thursday. The agency also granted emergency authorization for the first molecular diagnostic test for the virus.
In Mongbwalu, a mining town in Ituri province described as the outbreak’s starting point, the fatality rate stood at 50.7 percent, according to health data cited by the WHO. Authorities say that level points to continuing problems with early treatment and access to medical care.
Workers warn over pay and supplies
The health response in Ituri is also under pressure from workers who threatened to strike on Monday, according to a notice to the government seen by The Associated Press. The workers said they had not received benefits since the outbreak began and lacked enough supplies to do their jobs.
In the notice, staff inside and outside hospitals also cited low pay, inadequate equipment, the conduct of teams sent from Kinshasa and what they described as overuse of workers from other provinces instead of local labour in Ituri, AP reported.
The outbreak has also reached areas near North Kivu and South Kivu, where provincial capitals and large territories are controlled by the anti-government armed group M23, according to the report. Congolese health authorities described the 57.4 percent mortality rate in North Kivu as worrying.
South Kivu has recorded no confirmed cases since May 26, according to the reported health data. Health authorities in the M23-controlled region said last week that the epidemic had been eradicated in areas under their control.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.