{
  "id": 212249,
  "title": "Unpaid wages and deadly risk: Why health workers are threatening to abandon the Ebola response",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/06/unpaid-wages-and-deadly-risk-why-health-workers-are-threatening-to",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-08-06T07:28:11.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Egypt Independent",
    "slug": "egypt-independent",
    "url": "https://www.egyptindependent.com/unpaid-wages-and-deadly-risk-why-health-workers-are-threatening-to-abandon-the-ebola-response/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Micheline Kayimpa, a nurse at the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, faces a deadly risk as she prepares to enter an Ebola isolation ward each morning. The nurse is one of the many healthcare workers who have been working tirelessly on the front lines of what the World Health Organization has labeled the \"largest Ebola outbreak ever reported\" in the DRC. Since mid-May, the virus has infected at least 3,874 people and claimed the lives of 1,751, according to the Congolese health ministry.\n\nKayimpa and her colleagues are not only battling the highly contagious Ebola virus, but also the lack of government payments for their essential work. After months of treating Ebola patients, the mother-of-four has yet to receive a single paycheck. She joins dozens of health workers who have protested delayed wages and threatened to abandon their duties. The timing is particularly concerning, as the outbreak has rapidly escalated in just over two months, surpassing the scale of the country's last major Ebola epidemic, which lasted nearly two years between 2018 and 2020.\n\nThe outbreak, which has reached eastern Congo, is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no effective vaccines or treatment options. The response to the epidemic is already struggling, exacerbated by a lack of trust and hostility towards healthcare workers. Bunia, the capital of northeastern Ituri province, where Kayimpa works, has recorded over 90% of the confirmed cases. The response to the outbreak is already struggling to keep pace, and the situation is further complicated by ongoing conflict and displacement in the region, as well as weak health, water, and sanitation systems.",
  "summary": "Every morning, Micheline Kayimpa pulls on layers of protective gear before stepping into an Ebola isolation ward in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), knowing that one small mistake could cost her life. At the Elikya Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia, the nurse spends her days caring for patients infected with Ebola — one of … The post Unpaid wages and deadly risk: Why health workers are…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}