ICN warns on misinformation after Congo Ebola nurse killing

International Council of Nurses chief executive Howard Catton warned on Oct. 29 that misinformation endangers health workers after one Ebola-response nurse was killed in DR Congo, AllAfrica reported on Oct. 30.

The warning matters because Catton linked the killing to wider staffing pressures: Africa had 5.72 million health workers in 2024, up from 4.3 million in 2018, according to UN figures he cited in an AllAfrica interview.

"Health misinformation and the breakdown of trust in science is now a deadly risk for nurses and health workers," Catton posted on X on Oct. 29.

AllAfrica reported that Catton described the killing as "tragic news" and said young men armed with machetes killed the nurse. The article did not provide further details on the motive, the location in DR Congo or any arrests.

The UN’s Ebola coordinator and World Health Organization Director-General deplored the killing on Oct. 29, AllAfrica reported, saying the nurse had been working against Ebola in DR Congo four days earlier.

Catton also used the interview to warn that community health workers in parts of Africa risk being treated as a low-cost alternative to trained nurses. He said the continent is facing both the departure of registered nurses to richer countries and unemployment among nurses who remain.

"There is both the migration of registered nurses from the continent of Africa and unemployment of nurses in Africa," Catton said. "So, as we see this growth in community health workers, we also know that registered nurses continue to leave Africa for high-income countries in Europe or North America."

Catton said the African region has only 46% of the health workers it needs. He said some African leaders told him during visits last year that workforce losses were making it harder to strengthen health systems.

"To us, this is starting to feel like a form of neo-colonialism because we're having valuable resources which are being taken; we're not being adequately compensated for them," Catton said, describing views he heard from leaders on the continent.

A WHO Africa 2026 report cited by AllAfrica estimated that 943,000 trained health workers in the African region were unemployed in 2024, even as the region met only 46% of overall workforce needs.

"We are training more health workers than ever before, yet too many remain unemployed while millions go without care," WHO regional director for Africa Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi said in Ghana in May. "Without bold investment and coordinated reform to plan, train and retain health workers, progress toward universal health coverage will remain out of reach."

Pooja Kumar of the McKinsey Health Institute wrote that WHO estimates a global shortage of at least 10 million healthcare workers by 2030. She said Africa has 17% of the world’s population and accounts for 52% of the global shortage.

Source: news report, AllAfrica, Oct. 30, 2026