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The Associated Press KINSHASA (AP) – More than 1,000 people have died of Ebola in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since August, the country's health minister said Friday, while hostility to the Health workers continued to hamper efforts to contain the second epidemic of the virus.
Health Minister Oly Ilunga told The Associated Press that four deaths in the epicenter of the Katwa epidemic had brought the death toll to 1,008. Two more deaths have been reported in the town of Butembo.
The epidemic reported nearly nine months ago had already caused the largest number of deaths behind the 2014-2016 epidemic in western Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, which killed more than 11,000 people.
The unstable security situation and deep distrust of the community hampered efforts to control the epidemic in eastern Congo. Ebola treatment centers have been repeatedly attacked, leaving government health officials at clinics in Butembo and Katwa hot spots.
International humanitarian organizations have stopped working in both communities because of the violence. A Cameroonian epidemiologist working for the WHO was killed last month during the attack on a hospital in Butembo.
Insecurity has become a "major hurdle" in controlling the Ebola outbreak, told reporters Michael Ryan, head of health emergencies at WHO, Friday in Geneva.
He added that 119 attacks have been recorded since January, including 42 against health facilities, and that 85 health workers have been injured or killed. Dozens of rebel groups operate in the region, and political rivalries in part result in community rejection of health personnel.
"Whenever we managed to regain control of the virus and contain its spread, we had serious security problems," Ryan said. "We anticipate a scenario of continuous intense transmission" of the disease.
The WHO said that the most recent Ebola outbreak has remained contained in eastern Congo, while the number of cases is increasing in a densely populated and extremely mobile population near the border with the United States. Uganda and Rwanda.Speech
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