Ebola outbreak: Democratic Republic of the Congo records more than 900 suspected cases, 119 deaths

The Congolese government says suspected Ebola cases in the nation have passed 900.

Since the start of the outbreak, 904 suspected cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, of which 101 were confirmed, the Congolese Ministry of Communication said in a post on social media platform X.

The ministry revised the number of suspected deaths to 119, down from 204 a day earlier, with 10 Ebola deaths confirmed in laboratory tests.

The Ebola epidemic remains active in the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu, the ministry said on Sunday, local time.

In neighbouring Uganda, five confirmed cases were reported in connection with the outbreak in eastern Congo.

Uganda does not publish figures for suspected cases.

The World Health Organization assumes the actual number of cases is significantly higher because the outbreak in eastern Congo went unnoticed for weeks and not all cases have been reported. Clusters of unexplained deaths had already been investigated.

Meanwhile, angry young men stormed a hospital treating Ebola patients at the heart of the latest outbreak in eastern Congo on Sunday evening, forcing the medical staff to scramble to evacuate the patients.

It was not immediately known if anyone was hurt in the attack on the Monbgwalu General Hospital but Richard Lokudu, the hospital’s medical director, told The Associated Press the attackers demanded two bodies of their kin be handed over to them.

There was gunfire and the medics were trying to evacuate the patients and the staff, Dr Lokudu said over the phone.

The attack — the third in a week’s time on healthcare facilities where medical workers struggle with lack of resources to treat suspected Ebola cases — underlined the challenges of the outbreak, which the WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern.

Bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals.

In response to the outbreak, Congolese authorities have mandated that the dangerous work of burying suspected victims be managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends.

On Friday, the government said funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people would be banned in the north-east in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

On Saturday, a group of residents of Mongbwalu attacked and set fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group.

During that attack, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and were now unaccounted for, Dr Lokudu had said earlier.

On Thursday, another treatment centre, in the town of Rwampara, was burned down after family members were banned from retrieving the body of a local man suspected to have died of Ebola.

Ebola is a contagious and life-threatening infectious disease.

The current outbreak is particularly difficult to contain because there is neither a vaccine nor a specific treatment for the rare Bundibugyo strain involved.

The WHO considers the risk of infection to be very high in Congo, high in the region, but low globally. Unlike the coronavirus, for example, Ebola is not transmitted via airborne droplets, but through close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.

With AP