73 new cases, 32 deaths

02 Where

Nord-Kivu reports the most new cases: 36 of 73. Next come Ituri (30), Haut-Uélé (6) and Tshopo (1). The other four provinces report none.

Five health zones account for 44 of these cases: Beni leads with 16, then Mutwanga (10), Bunia (6), Mambasa (6) and Mangala (6). In Beni, the cumulative count goes from 737 to 775 cases, 22 more than the 16 new cases reported; in Biena, it falls by as much, from 48 to 26. The site shows the figures as published. Over the past three weeks, 45 of the 67 affected zones had at least one new case; the other 22, none.

03 Deaths

Of the 32 deaths of the day, 23 occurred in the community, outside a treatment centre: 17 in Nord-Kivu, 3 in Ituri, 2 in Haut-Uélé and 1 in Tshopo. The other 9 occurred in a treatment centre: 6 in Ituri, 2 in Nord-Kivu and 1 in Haut-Uélé.

04 The response

Teams received 3,972 reports of possible patients ("alerts") and checked them all: 539 were retained as suspected cases, to be tested. Sud-Ubangi and Nord-Ubangi did not send their figures.

In the laboratory, 73 of the 526 samples tested were positive, that is 13.8 %. This share reaches 25 % in Haut-Uélé.

82.7 % of contacts, the people who had been close to a patient, were seen by follow-up teams.

Ebola treatment centres hold 979 patients for 1,608 beds, that is 61 per 100 beds. Beyond capacity: Nord-Kivu, 595 patients for 424 beds.

Vaccination: 12,338 people have received the Ervebo vaccine since the campaign began on 26 August, 480 more of them since the day before (350 in Nord-Kivu and 130 in Ituri).

At control points, on roads and at borders, 256,045 travellers passed through; 96 % had their temperature checked. The posts reported 9 alerts and intercepted 2 corpses.

05 The difficulties encountered

In Ituri, 6,061 travellers refused health screening. The Nia-Nia checkpoints have stopped working, their staff demanding two months of unpaid wages, and the Avakubi checkpoint remains closed because of insecurity. Blood is still lacking and 35 patients are in critical condition.

In Nord-Kivu, treatment centres hold more patients than they have beds (108.8%) and 210 patients are being treated outside them. Only 633 vaccine doses remain, a quarter of the stock received.

In Tshopo, young people from Kabondo stormed the Météo treatment centre to take back by force the body of a patient who had died; the police had to step in. Two patients who escaped in Bafwasende are still missing.

In Haut-Uélé, nothing could be done around the cases in Isiro because of community resistance, and only 2 of 8 treatment centres meet the standards.

In Bas-Uélé, a strike by non-doctor health workers deprives the 13 general hospitals of nearly two thirds of their staff, and no ambulance is available.

In Sud-Kivu, three border posts still have no isolation space.

The full “Challenges” page →