Ebola outbreak shifts to North Kivu as health workers face conflict and shortages
Doctors Without Borders describes mounting pressure on care in Butembo as the outbreak’s reported epicentre moves from Ituri.
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has shifted from Ituri to North Kivu, where transmission is accelerating, according to a France 24 report published on Tuesday.
In Butembo, Doctors Without Borders project coordinator Stephanie Hoffmann described health workers treating people in a region shaped by decades of armed conflict and insecurity. The health system is already overwhelmed, the report said.
Hoffmann said workers are often caring for neighbours and relatives, sometimes without adequate protective equipment. The account points to the strain on frontline care as the outbreak spreads, though the supplied report gives no case or death figures.
France 24 described Butembo as a densely populated city of around 2 million residents. That figure, and the reported conditions facing health workers, were not independently substantiated in the supplied material.
