EBOLA DEATHS SET TO EXCEED 1,000

GENEVA Ebola deaths in Congo’s latest outbreak are imminently expected to exceed 1,000, the World Health Organization announced, as deadly attacks continue on health workers trying to contain the virus’s spread.

The outbreak that was declared in eastern Congo in August is already the second deadliest in history, and efforts to control it have been complicated by a volatile security situation and deep community mistrust.

Ebola treatment centres have come under repeated attack, and a Cameroonian epidemiologist working with WHO was killed last month during an assault on a hospital in Butembo city at the outbreak’s epicentre. Another attack on Thursday in Butembo was repelled, said Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief.

Insecurity has become a “major impediment to ensuring that we can access, engage with and serve the communities we wish to serve in Ebola control,” Ryan told reporters in Geneva.