{"id":746157,"date":"2026-08-22T12:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746157\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:36:08","slug":"ebola-frontline-workers-missing-wages-as-outbreak-spreads-exponentially-ebola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746157\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola frontline workers missing wages as outbreak spreads \u2018exponentially\u2019 | Ebola"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day, Sophie Mwadawa Kabundo goes to her job as a nurse at an Ebola treatment centre in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo<\/a>, afraid she will contract the virus and pass it to her family and friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more confirmed cases are being admitted here \u2026 Some of our colleagues have died,\u201d said Kabundo. \u201cWe fear that, despite our vigilance, workplace accidents may occur and put us in ever greater danger \u2026 We go to sleep already worrying about the days ahead, as patients continue to pour in.\u201d<\/p>\n

A health worker\u2019s protective gear is disinfected after handling the body of a suspected Ebola victim in Bunia. Photograph: Gradel Muyisa Mumbere\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Martin Bolombi, her colleague at the Elikya treatment centre in Bunia, the capital of the hardest-hit province, Ituri, holds similar fears. \u201cPersonally, this outbreak is causing me a lot of stress,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I have no choice but to pluck up my courage and ensure that the situation is brought under control first, before it can stabilise.\u201d<\/p>\n

That courage is all the more remarkable given that both workers on the frontline of the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record<\/a> said they were not being paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been working since May and have only been paid for June,\u201d said Bolombi, a hygiene worker who was among about 100 people who protested outside the Elikya treatment centre during a strike<\/a> last month over unpaid bonuses.<\/p>\n

Kabundo said she was also missing wages. \u201cWe are not being paid and we want the government to provide solutions as soon as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are under immense pressure \u2026 We are exposed to the risk of infection, and our families and other loved ones may contract the disease because of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

A health worker dries disinfected boots in Bunia. Photograph: Dieudonne Dirole\/AP<\/p>\n

Unpaid wages are just one of the factors \u2013 alongside misinformation, community mistrust and infrastructure deficits \u2013 hampering efforts to tackle the outbreak in the DRC, one of the world\u2019s poorest countries.<\/p>\n

More than 2,500 people have now died in the outbreak, which \u2060is spreading exponentially in an \u2060area larger \u200bthan France, the senior UN Ebola<\/a> coordinator, Julien Harneis, said on Friday. Speaking on a video call from Bunia, Harneis called \u2060for more aid, saying the existing pool of funds would run out within weeks. He said 160 healthcare \u200cworkers had fallen ill with Ebola, and 43 of them had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe outbreak is growing faster and wider than the Ebola response,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd all of this is happening in an area that has had three decades of conflict and is generating huge humanitarian needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization estimates that the outbreak is on course to exceed west Africa\u2019s 2014-16 Ebola outbreak<\/a> as the biggest ever globally. In the previous outbreak, more than 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths were recorded across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to WHO data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Health workers tend to an Ebola patient at the Rwampara treatment centre in Ituri province. Photograph: Moses Sawasawa\/AP<\/p>\n

The infections in DRC are of the rare Bundibugyo species of the virus. There are no approved treatments or vaccines for the strain, but trials for both are under way.<\/p>\n

Bolombi said he was working seven days a week, with barely any time to see his family, as the outbreak was getting worse. \u201cLogistics have improved compared to the early days of the response, but this is still not enough, as needs are growing as the disease progresses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Despite the enormous challenges and lack of renumeration, Kabundo expressed pride that there had been \u201ca large number of recoveries\u201d at the Elikya treatment centre. \u201cThis progress must be highlighted, but it is no excuse to rest on our laurels,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Congolese health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Passengers on a boat intercepted by health authorities wait to be tested for Ebola in Kinshasa, the DRC\u2019s capital. Photograph: Benoit Nyemba\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Ebola is transmitted to people from wild animals and then spreads between humans via direct contact with the organs, blood or other body fluids of infected people, including dead bodies. It can also be spread through contact with contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding or clothing.<\/p>\n

Initial symptoms can include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. These progress to vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, rash and symptoms of impaired kidney and liver functions.<\/p>\n

Widespread mistrust and misinformation have resulted in people with the virus not attending health centres for treatment until it is too late, as well as attacks on health facilities and ambulances.<\/p>\n

Dr Eddy Kambale Kahandukya, a deputy medical coordinator for the charity M\u00e9dicins Sans Fronti\u00e8res in the DRC, said: \u201cThe lack of community engagement remains a major challenge in breaking this chain of transmission \u2026 For example, patients who suspect they have symptoms and are awaiting laboratory results seek refuge within the community and end up creating new clusters that further fuel the spread of the epidemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

People dressed in protective gear lower a coffin containing Jeannine Katusabe, who died of Ebola, during a burial service in Bunia. Photograph: Dieudonne Dirole\/AP<\/p>\n

Fear was a big driver of the lack of trust in the authorities\u2019 response to Ebola, said Manon Dumortier, an emergency coordinator in Bunia for the aid group Mercy Corps.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary, right? \u2026 Suddenly there are so many people dying and you don\u2019t know what it is about,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople are just disappearing, going to health centres and you cannot even see them before they are being buried. This is just raising a lot of speculation and rumours.\u201d<\/p>\n

The WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern<\/a> in May, but later said sequencing showed the outbreak had started months earlier in February.<\/p>\n

The virus has spread to six of the DRC\u2019s 26 provinces, concentrated in the country\u2019s north-east. More than 4,200 of the confirmed cases are in Ituri, which borders Uganda and South Sudan.<\/p>\n

Uganda reported 20 cases and two deaths, all in the capital, Kampala. The government declared the country Ebola-free on 28 July after the last Ebola patient, a Congolese national, was discharged on 16 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every day, Sophie Mwadawa Kabundo goes to her job as a nurse at an Ebola treatment centre in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-746157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}