Ebola Patients and Staff Escape Hospital

Ebola patients fled a hospital in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after it was attacked by an angry crowd.

A health worker at the facility told Reuters — the latest incident will hamper efforts to contain the deadly outbreak.

Relatives of a patient were part of the crowd that stormed the Nyakunde Hospital in Ituri province on Wednesday afternoon and evening, throwing stones and damaging its perimeter fence, said François Berocan ​Uderos, a medical biologist at the hospital.

The crowd was responding to the death of a woman who had gone ​to the hospital to give birth but developed severe anaemia, he said.

"Members of her family offered to ⁠donate blood, but the hospital refused because blood transfusions are prohibited during an Ebola outbreak," Uderos said.

The woman died at around ​3 p.m., and the attack on the hospital began shortly afterwards, he said, adding that several of the up to 10 Ebola ​patients receiving treatment there had escaped.

"The medical team has since left the hospital. The generator supplying power to the facility is no longer functioning, and patients have fled," he said.

The attack underscores the difficulties health authorities face in tackling Ebola in eastern Congo, where mistrust of medical teams, community resistance ​and insecurity have repeatedly disrupted treatment and containment efforts.

 This incident highlights the difficulties health authorities face in eastern Congo: distrust of medical staff, local tensions, and security threats hinder treatment and the containment of the outbreak.

The latest case underscores the danger to staff and patients during an outbreak, particularly due to frequent attacks on medical facilities and the high risk in the region.

The Ebola outbreak in Congo (the 17th to date) has officially reached more than 2,000 confirmed cases and nearly 800 deaths. Since the outbreak began in May, several attacks on medical facilities have been reported, underscoring the importance of strengthening security and trust in medical teams.

According to sources, the outbreak is fueling protests and threats of strikes among healthcare workers due to concerns about pay and the rising workload during crises.

Among the response measures are staff evacuations; in Nyakunde, Samaritan’s Purse personnel, who operate an Ebola treatment center near the hospital, were also evacuated. A representative of the organization said the situation had become so severe that returning workers, ready to resume duties, was not possible due to roadblocks and the growing security threat.