The Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse hopes within a to open a 50-bed Ebola treatment centre in the area of the outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), its president told Reuters.
The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments, a public health emergency of international concern.
Medics battling the outbreak are grappling with supply shortages and attacks on their facilities, with protesters setting fire to tents for patients in Rwamparaek in the Ituri province last week.
“We have a lot more security available to us in Bunia, so we feel confident we will be OK from those type of attacks,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday, referring to the provincial capital.
He said the organisation, which helped in the DRC during the 2018-2020 outbreak, will also be working with local churches and spreading information leaflets to educate communities and gain community trust.
Materials for the centre, including generators and air-conditioners to cool patients and medics working in full protective gear, are set to arrive in Ituri on Wednesday.
“You’re building a small town,” Graham added.
Reuters
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