More health workers strike as Ebola cases in Congo exceed 2,000, including 754 deaths

BUNIA, Congo (AP) — The number of confirmed cases of Ebola in Congo has reached 2,011, including 754 deaths, according to government data released overnight in what authorities say is the fastest-growing outbreak on record.

Health workers at Bunia General Hospital, the region’s largest medical center, went on strike Wednesday and are the latest group to walk off the job at the epicenter over payment issues. Health professionals and other front-line workers barricaded the entrance to the hospital, claiming they have not received pay despite working under difficult conditions.

The World Health Organization says more than 100 healthcare workers have been infected since the beginning of the outbreak.

The Central African nation has been battling the Ebola outbreak caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus since May 15. A total of 753 patients remain in isolation or in hospitals, while 366 have recovered so far, according to data from Congo’s Ministry of Health.

The outbreak continues to spread faster than health officials can track despite an expanding response. At least 80% of new cases are emerging from unknown chains of transmission, the WHO said Tuesday.

A key challenge is that health authorities have yet to identify the outbreak’s patient zero, while displacement from armed conflict and mining-related movements have made it difficult to trace thousands who have come in contact with infected individuals.

The authorities have been able to trace 67% of the contacts of those exposed to confirmed cases, Congo’s health ministry said.

Many of the newly reported deaths are of people who died in their communities without ever reaching a health facility and without receiving care, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, the WHO emergencies chief, said Tuesday after returning from Bunia in Ituri, the worst-hit province in the outbreak.

The response is being hampered by a funding gap, attacks on health centers, an ongoing conflict in eastern Congo, and mistrust among local communities.

Dozens of healthcare workers at an Ebola virus treatment center in Rwampara, another hard-hit city in the Ituri province, went on strike over unpaid salaries and bonuses on Monday. On Tuesday, they agreed to resume work on condition the government pay them within 72 hours.

Some have told The Associated Press they have not received any payment since they started work at the onset of the outbreak.

Response efforts have also been challenged by the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo virus, unlike the more common Zaire virus for which there is a vaccine and which was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.

Enrollment in a highly anticipated study of two possible Ebola treatments recently started in Ituri.