Health workers struggle to contain Ebola in Congo camps as distrust grows

NIZI:After the Kpangba displacement camp ​became the first in this part of war-torn Congo to record deaths from Ebola two weeks ago, health workers rushed to trace those who had come into contact with the deceased to break chains of transmission._x000D_
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But the workers — from the provincial health ministry, the World Health Organization and other aid agencies — were forced away by angry locals who denied that the two women had died from Ebola, said Jean-Claude Lonzama, the chief doctor for the local health zone of Nizi, a heavily populated mining area._x000D_
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“Up to this day, ‌we are not ‌able to follow up on the contacts of these cases,” ​Lonzama ‌told ⁠Reuters on ​Saturday._x000D_
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The ⁠standoff has left health authorities flying blind as they try to stave off a surge of Ebola cases in this camp of around 30,000 people, most of whom have fled inter-ethnic violence in surrounding areas._x000D_
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“We have 22 displaced persons sites in the Nizi health zone … with around 81,124 residents,” Lonzama said. “This is also our great worry because no preventive measures have been put in place in these sites aside from a few educational messages.”_x000D_
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Since the outbreak ⁠was declared a month ago, several treatment sites have been attacked ‌by locals angry about not being able to bury ‌their loved ones because of precautions taken to keep the ​virus from spreading or convinced Ebola is ‌a hoax._x000D_
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POOR SANITATION_x000D_
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Aid workers fear Ebola could spread quickly in this and other displacement ‌camps, where hundreds of people sometimes share a single toilet and open defecation is common, accelerating the spread of what is already one of the world’s largest-ever outbreaks._x000D_
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There are more than 5 million displaced people across the three provinces affected by the outbreak — Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu — all ‌of which have been devastated by decades of conflict._x000D_
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In Kpangba, as in towns and rural areas across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo ⁠where cases have been ⁠recorded, health workers trying to contain the outbreak are running up against deep-seated mistrust of the government and outsiders._x000D_
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The attacks on Ebola treatment sites recall the widespread violence targeting health facilities by civilians and armed groups during a 2018-2020 outbreak in eastern Congo that killed more than 25 health workers._x000D_
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The deaths in Kpangba occurred on May 31 and June 1, but were first made public in a report by the UN refugee agency published on Thursday._x000D_
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According to a Congolese health ministry report seen by Reuters, the first victim, a 60-year-old woman in the camp, tested positive for Ebola on May 30 but had, by then, broken out of quarantine and could not be located._x000D_
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The difficulties winning trust from the ​population, combined with shortages of critical equipment ​and armed conflict across much of the affected areas, has left health experts deeply worried about the prospects for containing the outbreak.