Ebola fight faces community backlash
Nine new cases suspected in northwestern DRC
Kinshasa — Nine new suspected cases of Ebola were reported in northwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as authorities tackling the outbreak face challenges including resistance by local communities and multiple chains of transmission. Fifty-eight cases, including 30 confirmed and 14 probable, have been registered since the outbreak was declared on May 8, the DRC’s health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Of the nine new suspected cases, three are in Mbandaka, a provincial capital of 1.2-million habitants where four cases have so far been confirmed. Twenty-seven people have died, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The DRC’s latest Ebola outbreak was first identified around the remote town of Bikoro, 150km from Mbandaka. The detection of the virus in an urban centre connected by busy river routes to the capital, Kinshasa, home to about 12-million people, as well as to cities in the Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, has fuelled concerns t...
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