Exhausted health workers in Congo struggle to keep up as Ebola outpaces contact tracing

In eastern Congo, community health workers are struggling to keep up with the country's fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in history. Gédéon Banga Ngbape and his team investigate dozens of alerts each day, searching for those exposed to suspected or confirmed cases and attempting to get anyone showing symptoms into care before the virus spreads further.

However, the surveillance system is increasingly failing to keep pace with the virus, with 60-70% of new Ebola cases now being detected among people not already being monitored as contacts. This means health workers may only discover infections after patients have become sick and had opportunities to expose others. Dr. Mohamed Yakub Janabi, WHO regional director for Africa, has noted that the outbreak is killing almost three times faster than the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which claimed over 11,000 lives.

Health workers face numerous challenges, including inadequate protective supplies, threats from rebel groups, and misinformation. In Nizi, one of the most affected health zones, the outbreak has already claimed over 2,200 lives out of more than 4,700 cases. Striking health workers have not been paid in over three months, and the head of Africa CDC has called on the government to pay the outstanding salaries, as the money is available. Community health workers consider the payments inadequate for the work and risks involved.