The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is becoming harder to contain due to rumors, mistrust, and shortages of personal protective equipment, according to a press release by CARE. CARE country director for the DRC, Amadou Bocoum, Ph.D., held an emergency briefing where he stated that confirmed cases are rising daily. He cited delays in declaring the outbreak, limited community engagement, and mistrust between communities, health workers, and humanitarian organizations as key obstacles. Testing has confirmed the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola in the country. The crisis is unfolding alongside ongoing conflict, prompting the Africa CDC to warn it could become one of the worst outbreaks ever.
CARE has been working in the DRC for over 20 years and has coordinated with the Ministry of Health since the start of the outbreak. The response covers 22 health zones, where CARE is training local health workers, tracking cases, sharing reliable health information, and distributing hygiene kits with soap, hand sanitizer, gloves, and gowns. More than 900,000 internally displaced persons are already living in cramped temporary shelters in Ituri, making quarantine nearly impossible. CARE also supported previous Ebola responses in the DRC, including during the 2018 outbreak in North Kivu. Bocoum believes CARE’s long-term presence has built community trust.
Recent funding cuts are restricting outreach work that is typically conducted “door-to-door, family-to-family, using culturally appropriate communication to reach people.” Staffing shortages mean response teams cannot reach every area, complicating early detection, case reporting, and the distribution of accurate information. Critical supplies such as gloves and masks are now in short supply, along with lab equipment and testing materials. In one case, CARE supported a family after a child died from Ebola, monitoring contacts for 21 days and distributing hand sanitizer and soap. No additional infections occurred in that family.
Bocoum told UPI, “Sometimes they don’t believe Ebola is really real because of some rumor or false information, so that makes also our work very difficult. Because we cannot assist them to explain to them how people can catch the virus and where they should be able to go to get the assistance.”
Women and girls remain a focus of the response, accounting for 57 to 62 percent of laboratory-confirmed and probable Ebola cases in previous DRC outbreaks. They are often family caregivers responsible for washing bodies and caring for the sick. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable due to disruptions in maternal care. CARE has deployed nearly 400 community health workers, half of whom are women.
As of publication, CARE’s response reaches around 220,000 people across Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu provinces. Adequate funding would allow the response to reach 1 million people through hygiene kits distributed to 20,000 households. Expanded communication, community engagement, and stronger support for local health facilities are also planned. CARE addresses rumors and misinformation through community dialogue, radio, mobile outreach, and local leaders. More essential workers, protective equipment, and lab supplies remain in dangerously short supply.
