Ebola outbreak dies among 1,000 victims of worsening security situation

More than 1,000 people died in two Congo provinces during the second-worst Ebola outbreak in the modern era.

The Congolese Ministry of Health announced on Friday that 1,529 people had been infected by the epidemic, which is concentrated in two trading cities in North Kivu province. Of these, 1,008 people died, representing a mortality rate of nearly 66%.

Last week, 132 new cases of Ebola were confirmed, announced the Ministry of Health.

Public health officials are struggling to cope with the epidemic in an area where ethnic conflict is endemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday that it has recorded more than 100 attacks against health care workers or facilities dedicated to treating Ebola patients.

Eighty-five health workers have been injured or killed since the beginning of the epidemic. Last month, Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, a WHO epidemiologist in Cameroon, was assigned to lead a local response team at Butembo University Hospital.

"The operating environment has become increasingly uncertain and socio-politically complex. Insecurity remains a major impediment to setting up rapid response interventions in affected communities, "said the WHO in a statement Friday.

Public health officials fear for months that a deep and lasting mistrust between the inhabitants of North Kivu and virtually anyone from outside, including the distant federal government in Kinshasa, hinders the efforts of reply. These efforts are exercises to gain acceptance from the community, which requires as much anthropology as hard science.

"Everything that comes from the outside is really not welcome. This combination of a population traumatized by 30 years of conflict, conflict itself and mistrust makes it all the more difficult, "said Carlos Navarro Colorado, head of the Ebola response for UNICEF.

About 44% of the total number of Ebola cases were identified in Butembo and Katwa. The mortality rate in these cities, where public acceptance of efforts to control the virus has been slower to take root than in other cities, has been much higher. The virus spread from Butembo and Katwa to five nearby villages, where health officials thought they had eliminated the previous outbreaks.

At a press conference Friday, Mike Ryan, WHO's Deputy Director General for Emergency Situations, said the recent outbreak had followed earlier trends, when intervention operations were delayed or stopped because of the risk of violence.

And there are worrying signs that the number of cases could still increase. Health officials follow 12,000 people who have been in contact with someone who has contracted the Ebola virus. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health followed 286 potential cases in the region.

Ryan said public health officials would launch a more aggressive vaccination campaign to halt the progress of the virus. Up to now, more than 110,000 people have received a vaccine, manufactured by Merck, that seems to work. Ryan said the goal would be to administer up to 1,000 doses of vaccine each day over the next few weeks.