Ebola response in Congo struggles despite nearly $1bn in funding, MSF says

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Ebola has infected 11 114 people and killed 5 433 since the outbreak was declared May 15, Congo’s National Institute for Public Health said.

Ebola remains out of control in the Democratic Republic of Congo six months after the outbreak was declared, with frontline workers going unpaid and health facilities lacking basic supplies despite hundreds of millions of dollars mobilised for the response, a medical aid group said.

“Despite the vast amounts of money provided for the response, many frontline responders are left trying to contain the outbreak with empty hands and empty pockets,” Javid Abdelmoneim, the international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Thursday.

The warning comes less than a month after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said $962 million had been disbursed directly to organisations implementing the response. More than $700 million had yet to be accounted for by Congolese authorities, which were working with Africa CDC to reconcile how the funds had been spent. The agency didn’t say the money was missing or misappropriated.

Ebola has infected 11 114 people and killed 5 433 since the outbreak was declared May 15, Congo’s National Institute for Public Health said in a report Wednesday. Seventy-two new cases and 46 deaths were reported on Nov. 10, including 30 people who died in communities rather than treatment centres.

MSF said surveillance remains a critical weakness. In Ituri province, just 9% of Ebola patients treated by its teams had previously been identified as contacts, while almost two-thirds of Ebola-related deaths reported over the past month occurred in communities rather than treatment centres.

Congo’s own data show persistent problems. Less than 80% of almost 34,000 identified contacts were reached on November 9, below the government’s 95% target. Workers remained unpaid in several provinces, with payments three months behind in North Kivu.

Inadequate infection control is also allowing health facilities to amplify transmission.

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