Ebola burial team in DRC works under threats as virus continues to spread

As the Ebola epidemic continues to spread through eastern DR Congo, the death toll now stands at more than 3,000 people. Because of the risk of contagion, victims have to buried in accordance with strict protocols. It’s hard and dangerous work.

Inside a secured room at an Ebola treatment center in Congo members of a burial team prepare the body of another victim.

The country’s Ebola outbreak has killed more than 3,000 people among more than 6,100 confirmed cases according to government data released Wednesday, as the disease spreads at an unprecedented rate, faster than efforts to track and slow it.

“We’re racing against time, and there are many deaths, so many people are dying,” said Benjamin Muhindo, a member of the Dignified and Safe Burial team in Rwankole, in the Ituri province.

Members of the team say they face numerous risks, including exposure to the virus, rejection by members of their communities and attacks from people demanding the bodies of their loved ones so they can be buried according to local customs.

“Most of the time we face threats and most of the time these threats are verbal. It also happens often that they are physical, but less so because, as time goes on, people are beginning to understand what this is all about,” said Adolphe Yuma Tumba, another member of the team.

New cases

The US Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday in a report that the efforts to contain the virus “remained below established response targets” and the fast expansion of the disease across many health zones indicates “uncontrolled expansion of the outbreak.”

The report said that the statistics show that most of the cases are “occurring outside known transmission chains” as a result of the percentage of confirmed new cases coming from only between 15 percent and 20 percent of known contacts.

On Thursday, M23 rebels who control large areas of North and South Kivu said a new case of the virus had been detected in an area previously declared Ebola-free. The patient is a 21-year-old man in Kayna health zone in North Kivu, near Lubero. He was flagged as a suspected patient as he returned to the area but it’s not known where he contracted the virus. a

The World Health Organization said that the outbreak is on track to exceed the deadliest on record, West Africa’s regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people.