BUNIA, Congo — Congo is running short of health workers to staff treatment centers for history’s fastest-growing Ebola outbreak, particularly in the eastern province of North Kivu where cases have surged 73% over three weeks, reports BritPanorama.
The warning came despite signs of improvement in other provinces, including Ituri, the outbreak’s epicenter. The outbreak has spread to seven provinces, with 7,773 confirmed cases and 3,759 deaths, according to the latest government figures.
Between Aug. 31 and Sept. 20, cases fell 26% in Ituri province and 15% in Haut-Uele, said Marie Roseline Belizaire, the WHO’s regional emergency director for Africa. However, transmission patterns vary widely, and the outbreak remains uncontrolled.
“While cases and deaths are declining in some provinces, they continue to rise in others,” Belizaire stated. “The outbreak is still not under control and remains spread across a wide geographic area.”
The outbreak is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fueled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike, and intense population movements. The World Health Organization has indicated it is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s Ebola incident manager, noted that cases and deaths had begun declining in North Kivu after several weeks of increases. Yet, despite the addition of treatment beds daily, facilities still lack sufficient staff to operate them.
“The human resources gap is one of the biggest gaps,” Smallwood remarked.
WHO representative in Congo, Anne Ancia, highlighted that one Ebola treatment center requires about 300 health professionals, including anesthetists, hygienists, nurses, and general practitioners.
“We are building Ebola treatment centers, but do not always have the human resources needed to operate them,” Ancia explained. “Those health workers must be paid.”
Frontline workers in Ituri previously went on strike over unpaid wages, worsening access to care. Health Minister Roger Kamba stated in July that the government was verifying payroll lists after the names of individuals not involved in the response were added. Frontline workers have reported promises of payment for their arrears, yet many have received nothing or only partial payments.
Another significant challenge in the response is the fatality rate among children, according to the WHO. Children under five have the highest case fatality rate, exceeding 60%, compared to approximately 40% among adults, Belizaire reported.
WHO Ebola Incident Manager Smallwood mentioned that detecting cases among children under five is particularly difficult because young children may not articulate their symptoms, and the presentation of symptoms can be misleading.
