Ebola patients escape after attacks on hospital in the DRC
At least 25 suspected Ebola patients have escaped from a hospital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after two attacks by people demanding the release of bodies of victims who died from the disease, according to officials.
The attacks happened on Saturday and Sunday at Mongbwalu General Referral Hospital in Ituri province, one of the areas hit hardest by the growing Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda.
Dr. Richard Lokodu, the hospital’s medical director, told Reuters that 18 patients fled on Saturday after unidentified people burned isolation tents set up by Médecins Sans Frontières, the international medical charity also known as Doctors Without Borders.
Four lab results from those patients have come back so far, including one positive result and three negative results, Lokodu said.
The hospital was attacked again on Sunday by young people mobilized by relatives of a Christian religious leader who died from Ebola, according to Reuters. Seven more patients escaped, and Congolese police and soldiers were brought in to restore order.
A suspected Ebola patient in critical condition with hemorrhaging died during the second attack while trying to flee from his bed, Lokodu told Reuters.
The attackers wanted the bodies of people who died from Ebola to be released for burial, according to hospital officials. Ebola burials are often handled by trained response teams because bodies can remain highly infectious after death.
“This situation is worrying the response teams, who hope that these patients escaped solely out of fear and not to evade medical follow-up,” a hospital official said, according to RFI journalist Pascal Mulegwa. The official said it was the third escape of patients since the start of the epidemic.
“I fear that with this escape, the large number of suspected cases that have once again poured back into the community, it will be a bomb for the population of Mongwalu,” the official said. “Already, the first results are starting to reveal that, among those who fled, there are also positive cases.”
The attacks come as the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda has grown to 1,018 suspected and confirmed cases, including at least 234 deaths, according to health officials.
In Congo, health officials have reported 105 confirmed cases and 906 suspected cases, bringing the country’s total to 1,011 suspected and confirmed cases. Congo has reported 233 deaths, including 10 confirmed deaths and 223 suspected deaths.
The outbreak has been reported in 11 health zones across three provinces in eastern Congo. Uganda has confirmed seven cases, including one death.
The outbreak is caused by Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola virus for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics. The virus can spread through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected people or those who have died from the disease.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
