A tent part of a health centre located in a town at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak was attacked and burned, staff has claimed. The incident reportedly happened on Friday night in the town of Mongbwalu, eastern Congo, and if confirmed would mark the second such attack in the region in a week.
No one was hurt in the incident, according to initial reports, but as patients ran out to escape the fire, 18 people with suspected Ebola infections left the facility and are now unaccounted for, a local hospital director said. The alleged attack reportedly saw people setting fire to a tent set up for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group, Dr Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu hospital, said.
He told the Associated Press: “We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community.”
On Thursday, another treatment centre, in the town of Rwampara, was allegedly burned down after family members were banned from retrieving the body of a local man suspected to have died of Ebola.
The 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.
The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that 82 cases and seven deaths have so far been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.”
The Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola, spread undetected for weeks in the Ituri province in the country after the first known death, as authorities were testing for a more common Ebola virus, which was coming up negative.
There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.
There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus.
