The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the Democratic Republic of Congo has recorded five new cases of the deadly Ebola virus just as the government was set to declare an end to the epidemic.
Earlier in April, a 26-year-old man died from the hemorrhagic fever in the eastern town of Beni. This latest outbreak has killed more than 2 000 people since it began in August 2018.
Two new vaccines have had a major impact in containing Ebola, but public mistrust and militia attacks have prevented health workers from reaching some areas hit by the virus.
Demonstrators blocked roads in Beni with rocks on Thursday morning, protesting over the authorities’ handling of the latest Ebola flare-up and demanding all Ebola test results be verified by laboratories in eastern Congo’s main city Goma and in the capital Kinshasa in the west of the vast Central African nation.
Health teams were delayed by the protesters but eventually able to resume their work tracing those who came into contact with those newly infected by Ebola, Diallo said. Police said they arrested four people.
In the video below, the DRC had made significant gains in the Ebola battle:
Late in 2019, deadly attacks on health centres in and around Beni forced aid groups to suspend operations and withdraw staff from the last strongholds of the epidemic.
Congo, one of the world’s poorest countries where most people have scant access to modern health care, has also reported 287 cases of the new coronavirus and 23 deaths from the global pandemic.
