Congolese health authorities on Thursday monitored passengers travelling on a boat stationed near Kinshasa after a traveller died with symptoms matching the Ebola virus.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been battling an Ebola outbreak since May, declared the fastest in history in terms of transmission, with confirmed cases reaching 4,000, including more than 1,800 deaths, said Dr Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC.
The passenger had disembarked after getting sick in Pimu, in the province of Mongala, more than 1,000km from Kinshasa, Kaseya said on Thursday, adding that the capital has no confirmed Ebola cases.
The boat had been travelling for nearly three weeks along the Congo River with close to 200 passengers on board. They have been tested for Ebola and are in quarantine while awaiting their results.
“We decided to do that even if some of them didn’t have symptoms because we want to make sure that we don’t miss anything,” Kaseya said.
News of the passenger’s death caused panic in Kinshasa, which is far from the eastern region hit by the outbreak, the second-largest outbreak on record, behind the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak that recorded more than 28,000 cases, including about 11,000 deaths.
Authorities say 60%-70% of new cases in the current outbreak are recorded outside of contacts being monitored, and that the outbreak is spreading at an “alarming” rate, faster than efforts to track it.
Dozens of Congolese health workers at the epicentre in Ituri province, meanwhile, staged protests on Thursday to demand payment of their wages, abandoning several health facilities and further disrupting critical care.
The health workers were protesting at the governor’s office in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province, which accounts for nearly 90% of the Ebola cases in the country. They are the latest group to walk off their jobs since protests over pay issues began weeks ago.
The health workers, including nurses providing critical care to Ebola patients, said they haven’t received wages and bonuses for their work fighting Ebola since the outbreak was declared in mid-May in one of DRC’s most remote and vulnerable areas ravaged by rebel conflict.
“With this way of managing things, Ebola will not end in this province. We ask the authorities to get involved at all levels so a solution is found quickly,” said Edouige Makosi, one of the protesters.
Poor welfare for front-line workers has been a key source of concern in the outbreak
Officials have in the past blamed logistical issues for the payment delays. Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to an enquiry for comments on Thursday.
Poor welfare for frontline workers has been a key source of concern in the outbreak. Apart from the payment issues, many health workers and facilities have been attacked by rebels and angry mobs.
During his visit to DRC on Wednesday, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged authorities to prioritise care and support for the responders.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders said this week that the outbreak was still “spreading at an alarming and unprecedented rate” and that the response, which has been expanding, “is still not reaching communities quickly enough to break transmission chains”.
Government data shows 674 patients are now in isolation, most of them in Ituri.
At least 75% of contacts are being traced after their exposure to patients, the data showed. A bigger concern, though, according to officials, is that contact tracing has not been effective, as most new cases are coming from sources not being monitored and from remote localities where rebel conflict and mining-related movements are limiting access.
AP
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