A security guard runs in front of an Ebola treatment centre in flames in Rwampara, Congo, Thursday.Dirole Lotsima Dieudonne/The Associated Press
An arson attack on Ebola treatment tents at a Congolese hospital is the latest sign of mounting frustration and anger at the epicentre of the latest outbreak of the deadly virus, where authorities are struggling to enforce rules on safe burials.
Protesters set fire to the tents in Rwampara, one of the first towns where the outbreak was reported, after police stopped local youths from forcibly retrieving the body of a suspected Ebola victim at the hospital.
Videos on social media show plumes of dark smoke billowing from a fire at the hospital, while gunshots can be heard in the background. Police fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse the attackers, who reportedly set fire to the body of a suspected Ebola victim in the tents.
The outbreak of the rare Ebola strain was first disclosed last Friday after circulating undetected for several weeks in war-ravaged Ituri province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is already responsible for 670 suspected cases and 160 suspected deaths, making it the third-largest Ebola outbreak on record.
A new case was reported Thursday in South Kivu province, about 800 kilometres south of the epicentre, raising fears that the virus is rapidly spreading.
The strain, Bundibugyo, has no approved treatment or vaccine, and the response is hampered by a lack of basic supplies. Isolation facilities for Ebola patients in clinics and hospitals around the epicentre were reported to be full, with no beds available for new cases.
Trish Newport, an emergency manager with Doctors Without Borders, says her team in the Democratic Republic of Congo is dealing with a sprawling Ebola outbreak. So far, officials say a suspected 600 people are ill and 139 have died in Ituri province and neighbouring Uganda, but the numbers are likely higher because of a lag in test results. More Canadian aid workers are on their way to the region.
The Canadian Press
A survey by civil society group ActionAid, released Thursday, found that 29 per cent of Ituri’s schools have registered at least one Ebola case or close contact, but 78 per cent lacked any equipment to protect teachers or students against the virus.
In the chaos of the arson attack at Rwampara’s hospital Thursday, no patients escaped the Ebola facility, authorities said. Medical charity ALIMA, which runs the treatment site, said there were six patients in the tents but all were continuing to receive care after the attack.
The charity said it “condemns the endangerment of human lives and the destruction of medical equipment” and warned against the spread of misinformation that could fuel fear and mistrust of health facilities.
The incident began when a young man died at the hospital after being treated for suspected Ebola. Such cases are required to be buried safely with protective equipment, since the bodies of Ebola victims can be highly infectious and funerals can turn into super-spreader events. But a crowd of his relatives and friends gathered at the hospital demanding to take his body for a traditional burial.
No immediate plans for Ebola travel ban, Ottawa says, as deaths rise in eastern Congo
In addition to the new case in South Kivu province, other suspected or confirmed cases have been reported in the rebel-occupied city of Goma and in the city of Kampala, in neighbouring Uganda.
The virus appears to have spread for as long as two months before being detected, which makes it far more difficult to trace contacts and isolate those who were exposed.
Armed conflicts in Ituri and South and North Kivu provinces have forced about two million people to flee their homes. Some have returned home, but many still live in densely populated camps or crowded urban areas with poor access to health care.
“It’s easy to spread in an environment like that,” said Stephen Hoption Cann, a clinical professor with the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health. “If a patient were to come to Canada they would be isolated, and it would be easier to control that spread.”
Prof. Hoption Cann said he does not believe the average Canadian should worry about contracting Ebola. International spread from the latest outbreak is likely to be “very limited,” he said.
The Canadian Red Cross said Thursday that two of its health specialists are being deployed to Congo by the international Red Cross federation to help in the battle against the outbreak. One of them, Chiran Livera, will lead the international operations surge for the Ebola response.
On Wednesday, an Air France flight bound for Detroit was diverted to Montreal after a passenger from Congo boarded “in error” despite a U.S. travel ban, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday.
Ottawa, unlike Washington, has not imposed travel restrictions in response to the Ebola outbreak. Prof. Hoption Cann noted that the World Health Organization, from which the U.S. has now withdrawn, has cautioned against travel restrictions.
A spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Health confirmed Thursday that one individual is being assessed after returning from East Africa.
“Out of an abundance of caution, clinicians are testing the patient for a range of possible infectious diseases, including Ebola virus, given their recent travel history, in accordance with established clinical protocols,” said director of communications Jackson Jacobs.