Nine Ebola patients and contacts flee after attack in Cantine
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Mediacongo
Nine people being monitored for Ebola, including one confirmed case, five suspected cases and three high-risk contacts, fled Kelekele Hospital in Cantine after the attack attributed to the ADF on 6 November. Their dispersal complicates health monitoring and raises fears of renewed transmission, according to health officials cited by Mediacongo.
According to health officials cited by Mediacongo, Kelekele Hospital in Cantine was monitoring one confirmed Ebola case, five suspected cases and three high-risk contacts at the time of the 6 November attack. The nine people fled and dispersed into the community, complicating their identification and the monitoring of their contacts.
Dr Kakule Vulembera Christian, director of Kelekele Hospital in Cantine, fears transmission of the virus to other residents. Response teams must find the people who fled, identify their contacts and decontaminate homes visited by some patients, according to Mediacongo.
Cantine had already recorded nearly one hundred positive cases, according to the doctor. Health officials are asking displaced people with symptoms to go quickly to a health facility or an Ebola treatment centre, Mediacongo reports.
The ADF attack in Beni territory, which preceded the flight of the patients and contacts, had already been the subject of an assessment published on 6 November, with at least 35 civilians killed. The ADF attack in Beni territory thus takes place in an area where the Ebola response remains confronted with armed violence.
