Bunia health teams rebuild trust after 4,000 Ebola deaths

Bunia health teams are making early gains against the DRC’s Ebola outbreak after more than 4,000 deaths in five months, according to an RFI news report distributed by AllAfrica on Oct. 16.

The Oct. 16 report said the outbreak is the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 17th and has coincided in Bunia with maternal deaths rising from about three to almost five a week after health-service use fell.

In Rwampara, on the edge of Bunia, community workers have increased home visits, public meetings and alerts to push residents toward medical care. “We used to have routine activities, but with Ebola we had to change what we do,” health worker Emmanuel Birunga told RFI.

Birunga said early distrust drove some residents to treat the illness as malaria or poisoning and to seek help from traditional healers. He told RFI that the shift came after daily burials in his area sometimes exceeded 10, and on some days topped 15.

“Community engagement is always a challenge because when a new disease arrives, you have to find ways to involve communities in the different activities so they can get the right information,” Cynthia Stephanie Zoh, who supports community health workers at UNFPA, told RFI.

The health impact has spread beyond Ebola treatment. RFI reported that births in health facilities in the Rwampara area fell by half after pregnant women hesitated to attend clinics and medical staff lacked sufficient protective equipment early in the outbreak.

Midwife Victorine Kwikiriza told RFI no Ebola cases had been recorded at the Rwampara maternity unit. But she said staff initially feared contact with patients because they did not have adequate protection.

UNFPA midwife Esther Mosseka told RFI that door-to-door outreach helped persuade women to return for sexual and reproductive health services and other primary care. She said women face heightened exposure because they often care for the sick and take part in funerals.

Children have also been separated from caregivers during treatment. UNICEF told RFI that at least 1,900 children have been separated from a parent or guardian during the epidemic, and the agency has set up 12 nurseries attached to health facilities.

At Bunia’s Evangelical Medical Centre, RFI reported that UNICEF has placed a nursery beside the Ebola treatment centre for children whose parents are hospitalized. Some children have tested negative but remain monitored because they may have been exposed.

RFI reported that treatment centres in Bunia are no longer overwhelmed, but Ebola continues to kill. The situation remains concerning in the Beni-Butembo region of North Kivu, where the presence of the ADF armed group is making it harder to deploy response teams between North Kivu and Ituri.

The United Nations has warned that the humanitarian crisis remains underfunded, according to RFI.

Source: News report, Radio France Internationale via AllAfrica, Oct. 16, 2026