Ebola Virus News | Burials Of Ebola Victims Continue In Eastern Congo Under Armed Escort

As the second of three Ebola treatment centers was burned in eastern Congo on Saturday, Congolese army soldiers and police in riot gear escorted the ambulances carrying Ebola victims to a Rwampara cemetery.

The Red Cross carried out what is referred to as safe and dignified burials – protocols used to bury victims during infectious disease outbreaks - as a crowd stood by, crying as staff carried the coffins of their loved ones.

Healthcare workers have faced increasing difficulty handling bodies of Ebola victims in recent days. People set fire to an Ebola treatment center Thursday in Rwampara after being stopped from retrieving the body of a local man.

On Friday night, unidentified people set fire to the Ebola treatment center set up by Doctors Without Borders in Mongbwalu, the town hardest hit by the virus so far.

The leader of the Red Cross dignified and safe burials team, David Basima, said when he arrived at the healthcare structure to pick up the bodies, the community resisted. "So we were forced to alert the authorities so that they could come to our aid, just for safety,” he said.

During Ebola outbreaks, loved ones are forbidden from carrying out traditional burial rites, as the bodies of victims are highly contagious.

During another Ebola outbreak in nearby Beni in 2018, healthcare workers also faced pushback from the community, which sometimes turned violent.

Ebola treatment centers, meant to treat suspected or confirmed patients in isolation, were meant to be set up in Rwampara, Mongbwalu and Bunia.

Authorities in northeastern Congo banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people Friday in an effort to curb the outbreak.

The World Health Organization also said Friday that the outbreak now poses a “very high" risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high”.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be much larger.

There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo's Ituri Province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative.

There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.

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