A Second Ebola Treatment Center Is Set Ablaze in Eastern Congo, with 18 Suspected Cases Fleeing
Doctors Without Borders said 18 suspected Ebola patients fled after attackers torched a treatment tent for the second time this week.
- On Friday night, unidentified people set fire to a treatment tent in Mongbwalu, Congo, operated by Doctors Without Borders, causing 18 suspected Ebola patients to escape, Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, reported.
- Tensions regarding burial practices often lead to conflict, as seen in Rwampara on Thursday when a treatment center was burned after families were prohibited from retrieving a body. Bodies of Ebola victims remain highly contagious, fueling disputes over management.
- The World Health Organization said the outbreak now poses a "very high" risk for Congo, up from a previous "high" classification, with 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths reported as surveillance expands.
- Authorities banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people on Friday to curb virus spread. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies confirmed three volunteers died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu.
- Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emphasized that building community trust remains essential to the response. Sanitation workers in Bunia, Ituri, continue disinfecting public markets to combat spread.
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113 Articles
Ebola: The Congolese authorities suspect that 170 people have now died from the virus. The African Union Health Service thinks that…
2nd Ebola Treatment Center in Congo Set Alight, 18 Patients Missing
A second Ebola treatment tent in the eastern Congo, the epicenter of the unfolding Ebola outbreak in central Africa, was attacked by angry locals and set on fire on May 23. No one was injured in the fire, but all patients in the facility were forced to flee the flames, leaving 18 suspected Ebola patients unaccounted for, said Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the local town hospital. It was a Doctors Without Borders makeshift clinic in the town of…
In the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a facility for Ebola patients has been set on fire for the second time within a few days. According to the AP news agency, a treatment tent of "doctors without borders" burned down.
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