The Congolese health ministry on Saturday has reported five confirmed cases of Ebola in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, blaming the higher-than-normal daily increase on community resistance to disease response efforts.
The current epidemic in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces has seen one hundred and forty confirmed cases since July, one hundred and eight of whom have died, according to the ministry’s daily bulletin, which has been reporting an average of one to two new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks.
The ministry said the five new cases were located in the regional hub of Beni, where attacks by rebel groups in the area and local mistrust of the Ebola response campaign have disrupted treatment and vaccination programmes.
Just last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the epidemic was at a critical juncture due to security threats, community mistrust and an increased geographical spread of the disease.