43 healthcare workers among dead as responders face attacks
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has now infected more than 5,290 people and killed 2,516 since it was declared on May 15, U.N. Senior Ebola Coordinator Julien Harneis told reporters in Bunia on Friday.
About 160 healthcare workers have contracted Ebola during the response, and 43 of them have died, according to figures Harneis cited. The Bundibugyo virus responsible for the outbreak has no approved vaccine or treatment. Officials have called it the fastest-spreading outbreak on record, killing one person every 30 minutes.
Harneis described attacks on responders that compound the medical toll. “Apart from the threat from the virus, healthcare workers and frontline workers have been attacked by youths, ambulances have been burned and stoned and the healthcare facilities have been attacked,” he said. “Conditions on the ground are extremely difficult, but we will continue deploying all the humanitarian and medical assistance needed until the job is done.”
Harneis told reporters that half of all deaths occurred in the past 20 days and that the epidemic is spreading to an area “bigger than France.” A senior United Nations official separately described the outbreak as “growing exponentially.” “The outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,” Harneis said.
Harneis said funding would run out soon. “We’re only covered for the next weeks, and very soon funding will run out,” he said. “Every delay in funding and implementation makes this epidemic more deadly, more difficult to stop and more expensive. So, we need that international support immediately.”