Attacks on Congolese health facilities allow Ebola patients to escape, hampering response India News

Doctors fight against the disease Ebola epidemic The Democratic Republic of Congo is facing growing challenges as attacks on health facilities and fleeing patients disrupt the response in the country’s northeast, Reuters reported.At least three such incidents have been reported so far in Ituri province, where the first Ebola case was detected. Two attacks on the Mumbwaru General Referral Hospital at the weekend resulted in the escape of more than two dozen patients.Dr. Richard Lokodu, medical director at Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital, told Reuters there was widespread distrust and denial surrounding the outbreak.“There is denial about the disease and some members want to claim the bodies of suspected and/or confirmed cases,” he said.Eighteen Ebola patients fled on Saturday after unidentified people set fire to a tent used by medical charity Doctors Without Borders to isolate patients, according to Lokodu. Four test results from these patients subsequently came back, including one that confirmed Ebola virus infection.“As a result, we have a confirmed case of Ebola that continues to spread in the community and evade response measures,” Lokodu said.On Sunday, the hospital faced another four waves of attacks, allegedly led by young men mobilized by relatives of a Christian religious leader. WHO Died from Ebola. Seven other patients escaped during the riots, and in the second attack, a seriously ill suspected Ebola patient died from haemorrhaging while trying to escape.Police fired into the air as angry crowds in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo tried to recover the bodies of relatives who died at an Ebola treatment center in Mumbwalu, local media reported, according to the BBC.The recent events are reminiscent of the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, in which more than 25 health workers were killed in attacks on treatment centers.As the virus spreads rapidly across the region, doctors on the front lines are also facing shortages of basic supplies. Lokodu said the attackers wanted the bodies of Ebola victims released for burial, warning that unsafe burial practices, in which family members handle bodies without protective equipment, were a major driver of the spread. Earlier this week, crowds in the town of Ruwanpara, about 85 kilometers southeast of Mumbwalu, were prevented from removing the body of a man suspected of having died from Ebola for burial and set fire to a hospital isolation tent.this World Health Organization Describing the current outbreak as the third largest outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain on record, it declared it a public health emergency of international concern.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 900 suspected cases have been recorded so far, including 101 confirmed infections and at least 220 suspected deaths.Earlier on Monday, Congo’s neighbor Uganda reported two more Ebola cases, bringing its total number of confirmed infections to seven.