Ebola cases sharply up in eastern DR Congo

Twenty cases of Ebola have been recorded in three days in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where deadly violence is hampering efforts to end the 16-month-old epidemic, the authorities said on Thursday.

Ten cases were notified on Wednesday alone in Mabalako in North Kivu province, after six on Tuesday, according to the Multisectoral Committee for Epidemic Response (CMRE).

Three out of the six are practitioners of traditional medicine, it said.
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More than 2,200 people have died since the epidemic was declared on August 1, 2018.

As of November 22, the rate of new cases had fallen to 10 per week.

CMRE said “security reasons” — attacks on Ebola health workers and sites by armed groups and angry youths — had “paralysed” work in the key zones of Beni, Biakato and Mangina.

The attacks led to a pullout of locally-employed Ebola workers in Biakato by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

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