Workers at an Ebola treatment center in Ituri — the outbreak’s epicenter — closed the facility, blocked access and burned a tire after weeks of risky work with little or no pay.
The strike threatens to spread to other overstretched sites just as Congo’s Bundibugyo-virus outbreak, which has no approved vaccine, has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record.
1,926 cases and 702 deaths have been confirmed, and suspected infections have now appeared in two more provinces, including Kisangani, raising fears responders still do not know how far the virus has spread.
Researchers this month began enrolling patients in a study of remdesivir and MBP134, but the trial is available at only one Ituri treatment center and could take months and up to 1,000 participants to show results.
The labor unrest adds to a response already strained by rebel threats, attacks on health facilities, weak infrastructure and misinformation that Ebola is not real.