A fire destroyed an Ebola treatment tent in eastern Congo for the second time in a week, and 18 individuals suspected of being infected with the Bundibugyo virus fled the scene, a local hospital director confirmed on Saturday.
Attack on Medical Facility
Unidentified assailants targeted the clinic in Mongbwalu, a town at the epicentre of the Bundibugyo virus outbreak—a rare strain of Ebola—on Friday night. They set fire to a tent erected by Doctors Without Borders for suspected and confirmed Ebola patients, according to Dr Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital.
“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community,” he said.
Previous Incident
On Thursday, a separate treatment centre in the town of Rwampara was razed after family members were prevented from reclaiming the body of a local man. The remains of Ebola victims are highly contagious and can trigger further transmission when families handle them for burial or gather for funeral services.
Authorities are taking charge of burying suspected victims wherever possible, a move that has sparked resistance from grieving families and friends.
Community Tensions
A burial for Ebola patients in Rwampara took place on Saturday under heavy security, as tensions between health workers and the local community reached boiling point, according to David Basima, a Red Cross team leader overseeing burials.
“Arriving at the (healthcare) structure, we experienced a lot of difficulties, including resistance from young people and the community. So we were forced to alert the authorities so that they could come to our aid, just for safety,” said Basima.
Containment Measures
To contain the virus, authorities in north-eastern Congo imposed a ban on Friday on funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people. The World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the outbreak’s risk level for Congo from “high” to “very high”, though it maintained that the likelihood of global spread remains low.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed on Friday that 82 cases and seven deaths have been verified in Congo, adding that the outbreak is thought to be “much larger.”
No Vaccine Available
No vaccine currently exists for the Bundibugyo virus, which went undetected for weeks in Congo’s Ituri province following the first known fatality, while authorities were testing for a more common strain of Ebola that returned a negative result.
The number of suspected cases has now reached 750, with 177 suspected deaths. These figures are expected to rise as surveillance efforts are broadened.
Volunteer Deaths
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies announced on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The organisation suspects the three healthcare workers caught the virus while conducting dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
This would substantially shift the timeline of the outbreak from the earlier first confirmed death in late April in the town of Bunia, the capital of Ituri.
