More people are seeking treatment for Ebola in the town of Bunia in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province where community trust appears to be growing.
Medical staff say more people are coming to receive treatment for the haemorrhagic virus, making their care easier.
Dr Job Kkabagambe Tibasima is the deputy supervisor for the Ministry of Health at the Ebola Treatment Centre at the Evangelical Medical Centre in Bunia
He sais it is a positive shift in the relationship between communities and health service providers.
“The patient who comes to the centre receives their treatment properly and leaves without incident, and at the end, they even thank the medical team,” he said
Despite the growing trust, the Ebola outbreak continues to outpace the response.
More than 2,500 cases have been reported so far, but as insecurity and active conflict continue to limit access to affected areas, it is estimated that the actual number could be more than twice as high.
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Although contact tracing now reaches around 80 percent of identified contacts, teams still can not reach every community, diagnose every sick person, or deploy response teams wherever they are needed.
Priorities remain reducing transmission in Ituri by strengthening surveillance, safe and dignified burials, clinical management, and community engagement.
At the same time, there is a need to rapidly build response capacity in newly affected provinces before transmission becomes established.
The World Health Organisation says this faces technical challenges but also requires political action towards a ceasefire to improve humanitarian access and allow the urgent scale-up of operations.
It added that people in DRC can not face the outbreak alone. They need sustained support from the international community and, above all, they need peace.
Africanews/Shakirat Sadiq
