Ebola toll rises in eastern DRC as dozens of health workers fall ill
WHO says 75 medical workers have contracted Ebola in the DRC outbreak, adding strain to a health system hit by conflict and low staffing.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
Seventeen medical workers have died from Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization said, as officials warned that the outbreak is still spreading through the country’s east. The deaths underscore the pressure on a health system already strained by conflict, displacement and limited funding.
WHO emergency director Marie Roseline Belizaire said on Friday that 75 healthcare workers had been infected since Congolese authorities declared the outbreak on May 15. Speaking by video link from the outbreak area, she said the situation remained serious and was changing rapidly.
Congolese authorities said Thursday that Ebola had killed 232 people and infected 896 across 31 health zones. Health officials have warned that the outbreak has not yet peaked.
Health workers exposed
Health officials believe the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola circulated for months before the government announced the outbreak, leaving doctors, nurses and other staff at risk before they knew the virus was present. Some health facilities still lack basic protective supplies, including gloves and masks, according to officials cited by AFP, AP and Reuters.
Belizaire said the loss of medical workers was especially damaging because the DRC already has too few health staff. WHO data put the country’s ratio at about 11 healthcare workers for every 10,000 people.
China and Uganda are sending medical teams to help with the response, Belizaire said. She added that WHO is offering psychological support to medics who are afraid to treat patients after seeing colleagues become infected.
The African Union’s member states have pledged nearly $1bn for the emergency response in eastern DRC and neighbouring Uganda. Uganda has reported 19 cases and two deaths, according to the figures cited by officials.
Alarm in displacement camps
Officials and aid groups are also watching camps for displaced people, where crowding, poor sanitation and resistance to testing could allow Ebola to spread without detection. Eastern DRC has more than five million displaced people, according to the reporting by AFP, AP and Reuters.
In Kigonze camp in Bunia, Ituri province, at least 30 people have died since early May. Camp officials described the number of deaths as unprecedented, but authorities could not confirm the causes because patients and relatives had refused testing of both living people and the dead until Thursday, according to a camp spokesperson and Caritas.
Witnesses and aid sources told Reuters that some of the dead had symptoms associated with Ebola, including fever, headaches and vomiting. Camp spokesperson Desire Grodya Bapi told Reuters that people in the camp had not previously died in that way.
Kigonze holds more than 15,000 people. Ebola deaths have also been recorded in another camp in Ituri, the province that accounts for more than 90 percent of nearly 900 confirmed cases, according to the reported figures.
Aid workers said cuts in funding for water, sanitation and hygiene programmes have increased the risk. Donors, including the United States under President Donald Trump, have reduced support for programmes such as toilets and handwashing stations, which are central to limiting a disease spread through bodily fluids.
UN data show funding for toilets and handwashing stations in the DRC fell by more than half between 2024 and 2025, to about $38m. The UN’s $80m appeal for this year is 21 percent funded.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.