DR Congo's quiet Ebola front races to contain virus

KINSHASA — At Lwiro Hospital in South Kivu Province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the fight against Ebola has narrowed to a ward, a mobile laboratory and a fragile line of surveillance around one of the less noticed fronts of the outbreak.

While most attention has focused on Ituri Province, the epicenter of the outbreak, health workers in Lwiro village say they have been on maximum alert since the virus reached the area.

The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the DR Congo has risen to 782, including 181 deaths, the Health Ministry said on Sunday. Three cases, including one death, have been confirmed in South Kivu Province.

"We've already recorded two confirmed cases and two suspected cases," said Rene Mbiye, the hospital's medical director. Six patients, including children, are currently under care, he said.

"We have a newborn who is almost 2 weeks old, as well as another child aged 1 year and 3 months," Mbiye said. "We are monitoring them closely. They have been separated from their mothers, and we have assigned a nurse to care for them."

For doctors in Lwiro, the small number of confirmed cases does not mean the danger is small. The area is controlled by the M23 rebel group, whose presence in parts of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces has complicated administration, humanitarian access and public health coordination.

Earlier this month, an Ebola burial team came under attack in Katana, South Kivu Province, in rebel-held territory, according to local media. The team was forced to abandon a coffin, and community members later handled the body, a high-risk practice that can trigger new chains of infection.

For Ebola responders, safe burials, contact tracing and early isolation are not merely technical procedures. They can mean the difference between a contained cluster and a widening outbreak.

In the Miti-Murhesa health zone, medical teams are racing to detect symptoms early and isolate suspected cases. To speed up diagnosis, a mobile molecular biology laboratory has been deployed near the local epicenter of the outbreak.

"We've put in place the necessary means to respond to the situation," said Noella Mukana, a medical biologist with the National Institute of Biomedical Research.

"This considerably reduces the time between sample collection and the obtaining of results," she said.

Strained by conflict

Memories of previous Ebola outbreaks remain vivid in eastern DR Congo, but the latest outbreak has reached a region already strained by armed conflict and displacement.

South Kivu Province has yet to record the highest number of cases, but health workers say that is precisely why swift action is critical.

"While attention has focused on Ituri Province, … we are concerned about the lack of resources and attention given to North Kivu and South Kivu," a staff member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies told Xinhua News Agency.

XINHUA