On Sunday, April 12, 2020, the Democratic Republic of Congo recorded a second Ebola-related death in days after almost two months of no new case. The Central African country has been battling an Ebola outbreak that has killed thousands of people for over a year and was due to declare itself Ebola-free yesterday.
Reuters reports that the latest death is an 11-month-old baby who received medical care in the same health centre as the 26-year-old electrician that died last Friday. Officials say they cannot ascertain how the electrician contracted Ebola as he had no known contacts with other Ebola patients and was not a survivor who could have relapsed.
Unfortunately, the DR Congo, like the rest of the world, is tackling COVID-19, having recorded over 200 cases and 20 deaths. Therefore, these latest Ebola-related deaths certainly raise apprehension; tackling both diseases will put a strain on an already weak public health system.
The DR Congo is also battling a measles epidemic that has killed over 5,300 children since early 2019, not to mention 31,000 recorded cases of cholera. This means that the country would have to share and divert available health capacity and resources, that it doesn’t have enough of in the first place.
“As the DR Congo works to contain Ebola, COVID-19 could strain an already battered health system that is struggling to protect children from measles and cholera,” UNICEF stated a week ago while soliciting more funds. Sadly, since donor countries themselves are struggling to check COVID-19, financial aid from the West would be less forthcoming.
The Ebola outbreak in the DRC persisted due to rumours, conflict, cultural complications and repeated attacks on health workers and facilities. These issues remain. On Saturday, young men threw stones at a team of healthcare workers that had gone to decontaminate the home of the deceased electrician because they do not believe that Ebola still exists.
Given these plethoras of issues, rallying again to tackle both Ebola and COVID-19 after many months of trying to contain only the former will be extremely challenging, but it must be done, swiftly, before the coronavirus spreads to the capital, Kinshasa, a densely populated city of 14 million people located on one of the country’s borders.
