On a hilltop town in eastern Congo, work has started on a new Ebola center. Local health workers here say the center is too late. Many lives could have been saved, they say, had a sustained effort started in the town of Mangala in June.
In Mangala, the Ebola response only started ramping up in August. This outbreak, already the second largest on record, has reached seven provinces in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 3,900 people have died of Ebola in Congo since May.
"There was no help, not even a bit," said Godefroy Banzani, a senior nurse in Mangala, recalling how the town felt abandoned. Experts say what happened in Mangala underscores how this outbreak became the largest Congo has seen.
Health workers offered several explanations for the lag. One issue: the town has few hotels, forcing aid workers to make a three-hour trip each day from Bunia. The rutted road is dusty and muddy, and insurgents sometimes impose checkpoints. Foreign aid cuts have forced painful choices, said Luca Fontana, a senior W.H.O. official.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing