The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak has become the largest in the country’s history, with health workers facing violent attacks amid rising social unrest.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: Over 2,500 people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s latest Ebola outbreak, according to the United Nations (UN). 📺 DETAIL: The most recent crisis represents the largest Ebola outbreak in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The previous largest outbreak lasted from 2018 to 2020. Roughly 160 health workers have fallen ill with Ebola, and 43 have died. In addition, over 260 attacks on health workers have been reported over the past six months, with eight being killed. The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, contributing to the climate of panic. “The Ebola outbreak is growing exponentially… And all of this is happening in an area that has had three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian needs… Fear translates into angry young men who start throwing stones at their object of fear, the ambulance,” announced Julien Harneis, Senior Ebola Coordinator at the UN. The announcement came on Friday as Harneis warned that funding for the emergency response is set to run out within weeks. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “The epidemic is spreading to an area that is bigger than France, and the outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response.” – Julien Harneis. 🎯 IMPACT: The escalating outbreak threatens to overwhelm the country’s already strained healthcare system. The ongoing violence against health workers undermines the increasingly unsustainable containment operation. This report comes just a few months after former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield warned that the outbreak, which is concentrated in the DRC but has spread to various East African countries, could spiral into a significant pandemic. “I suspect this is going to become a very significant pandemic, probably going to leak into Tanzania, leak into Southern Sudan, maybe leak into Rwanda,” said Redfield back in May. |
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