Health care workers in the center of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo have given a one-week ultimatum to the government to improve their security or else they will walk off the job.
The threat comes after a Cameroon national and World Health Organization employee, Dr. Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, was killed last week during an attack on an Ebola response command center in the eastern Congo.
According to a statement by IMA World Health, a Washington-based aid group that supports the hospital he was working in, gunmen burst into a conference room and forced people on to the floor, took their belongings and accused them of perpetuating false rumors about Ebola.
The gunmen then shot the Cameroonian doctor in the abdomen and left. Two other health workers were injured in the attack.
Friday’s attack was at least the fourth on an IMA World Health-supported facility involved in Ebola response efforts, the statement said. Four days earlier, attackers looted a nearby clinic and briefly kidnapped a nurse.
Politically, eastern Congo is a volatile area where many armed groups operate. Lack of trust in government has subverted efforts to contain Ebola since the outbreak began late last summer. Some residents falsely accuse foreigners of bringing Ebola to the area.
Following the death of the doctor, W.H.O issued a statement which read in part, “To ensure the safety of all outbreak responders, Ebola response activities have been temporarily halted in some high-risk health areas until security measures can be
reinforced.”
As of 23 April, W.H.O said that a total of 1367 confirmed and probable EVD cases had been reported, of which 885 died (case fatality rate 65%). The number of healthcare workers affected has risen to 90 (7% of total cases), including 33 deaths.
The outbreak has become the second-deadliest in history, behind the West African one from 2014-16 that killed more than 11,300 people.
