Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s six-month Ebola response remains hampered by supply shortages and weak case tracking, as confirmed cases top 11,000 and safe care remains difficult.
MSF said large sums had been put toward the response, but frontline workers still lack pay and basic resources. It cited staff who were both untrained and unpaid, ambulances without fuel, and too few surveillance teams. Some health facilities also lack water, chlorine and other supplies needed to manage suspected cases safely.
In Beni health zone in North Kivu, MSF said its teams believe nearly three-quarters of Ebola patients acquired the disease in health care settings. The organization said communities accounted for about two-thirds of reported Ebola deaths over the previous month. In Ituri, just 9% of patients treated by MSF were known contacts of earlier cases.
The World Health Organization (WHO) counted 9,637 confirmed cases and 4,646 confirmed deaths by Oct. 19. EconoTimes previously reported that tally and access barriers facing the response.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged delayed pay for health workers in remarks on Nov. 10 and said insecurity had become a major barrier. He said an attack in Cantine-Aloya, North Kivu, the previous week killed 66 civilians, including three health workers. Surveillance teams lost track of more than 1,000 contacts after the attack, and three confirmed Ebola patients were also missing, he said.
At a separate briefing on Nov. 11, epidemiologist Neil Ferguson said about half of cases were likely being detected. Ferguson’s team estimated that 2,000 to 3,000 people in Congo had Ebola, Reuters reported. He said transmission could still be underway a year later and the outbreak might exceed the 2014-16 West African epidemic, which recorded more than 28,600 cases.
WHO Regional Director for Africa Mohamed Yakub Janabi has said local clusters were declining even as the outbreak spread across Congo, with some infected people reluctant to seek care. MSF called on the Congolese government and U.N. agencies to ensure resources mobilized for the response reach people on the ground.
