Fastest-ever Ebola outbreak hits 2,000 cases, 754 deaths in Congo

DR Congo’s Ebola outbreak has grown to 2,011 confirmed cases, including 754 deaths, making it the fastest-growing on record, according to government data released overnight.

Health workers at Bunia General Hospital, the region’s largest medical center, went on strike Wednesday and are the latest group to have walked off their jobs at the epicenter over payment issues.

Health professionals and other frontline workers barricaded the entrance of the hospital, claiming they have not received any compensation despite working under difficult conditions.

The World Health Organization says more than 100 health care workers have been infected since the beginning of the outbreak.

The Central African nation has been battling the Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus since May 15. A total of 753 patients remain in isolation or in hospitals, while 366 have so far recovered, according to Congo’s Health Ministry data.

Contact tracing remains a challenge, with coverage of those exposed still at 67%.

The outbreak continues to spread faster than health officials can track despite an expanding response. At least 80% of new cases are emerging from unknown chains of transmission, the WHO said Tuesday.

A key challenge is that health authorities have yet to identify the outbreak’s patient zero, while displacements from armed conflict as well as mining-related movements have made it difficult to trace thousands who have come in contact with infected individuals.

Many of the newly reported deaths are those who died in their communities without ever reaching a health facility and without receiving care, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the WHO health emergencies chief, said Tuesday after returning from Bunia in Ituri, the worst-hit province in the outbreak.

The health response is being hampered by a funding gap, attacks on health centers, an ongoing conflict in eastern Congo and mistrust among local communities.

Dozens of health care workers at an Ebola virus treatment center in Rwampara, another hard-hit city in the Ituri province, went on strike over unpaid salaries and bonuses Monday. On Tuesday, they agreed to resume work under the condition that the government pays them within 72 hours.

Some have told The Associated Press they have not received any payment since they started work at the onset of the outbreak.

Response efforts have also been challenged by the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo virus, unlike the more common Zaire virus for which there is a vaccine and which was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

Enrollment for a highly anticipated study of two possible Ebola treatments recently started in Ituri.

DAILYSABAH