The Tamesis
Congo Bunia An Ebola treatment center in the town at the center of eastern Congo’s Ebola outbreak was blocked on Thursday from retrieving the body of a local man and then set on fire, a witness and a senior police officer said, as people feared and angered over a health crisis doctors were struggling to control.
The arson attack in Rwanpara reflects the challenges faced by health workers trying to contain the rare Ebola virus by using strict measures that may conflict with local customs, such as burial rituals. The disease has been spreading for weeks in a region that lacks adequate sanitation and where many people are fleeing armed conflict.
The bodies of Ebola victims are highly contagious and can lead to further spread as people prepare the bodies for burial and attend funerals. Authorities are managing the dangerous task of burying suspected victims as best they can, but this is likely to be met with protests from family and friends of the victims.
The center of Ruwanpara was burned by local youths enraged while trying to retrieve the body of a friend who apparently died of Ebola, according to a witness who spoke to The Associated Press by phone.
“The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful,” said Alexis Burata, a local student who was in the area. “The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That was what happened.”
Reuters captured footage of the treatment center burning:
Gradel Muissa Mombel/Reuters 
An Associated Press reporter saw someone break into the center, set fire to its contents and burn the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim stored there. Aid workers fled the treatment center in vehicles.
Deputy High Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of Ituri province’s public security department, said the young people did not understand the rules for burying suspected Ebola victims.
“Despite clear instructions from the authorities during the Ebola outbreak, his family, friends and other young people wanted to take his body home for the funeral,” Mukendi said. “All bodies must be buried according to regulations.”
Hama Amadou, field coordinator for humanitarian organization ALIMA, which has a team at the centre, said later that calm had been restored and aid teams were continuing to work at the centre.
The outbreak of outrage underscores the complexities faced by Congolese authorities and a range of aid agencies as they try to stem the outbreak, which the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media on Friday that Congo “currently has nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths,” while neighboring Uganda reported two confirmed cases and one death.
But the World Health Organization said the outbreak was almost certainly much larger and expressed concern about the speed of spread.
“We are still in the stage of intensifying investigations and finding cases,” said Jean Kasea, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I expect that as surveillance becomes more stringent, the number of cases will increase.”
Risk of outbreak Global transmission rate is lowBut the severity of the outbreak is high in the region, with Ituri province at the center of the outbreak and bordering Uganda and South Sudan, the World Health Organization said.
Experts say early detection of the virus is key to saving lives, but the region’s already weak health infrastructure and surveillance capabilities have been further weakened by international aid cuts. There are more than 920,000 internally displaced people in Ituri province, according to United Nations
Armed conflicts in the region further complicate efforts to respond to the crisis. At least 17 people were killed in an attack by militants linked to ISIS in the village of Alima in Ituri on Tuesday, local leaders said.
Health workers and aid groups say they urgently need more supplies and personnel to respond. Additionally, there is currently no available vaccine or medicine against the Bundibugyo strain responsible for this outbreak.
One expert said this week it would take at least six to nine months to roll out.
Ariel Kestens, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ mission in Congo, said: “The priority now is to act quickly and work closely with communities because the next few days will be crucial.”
Ebola virus is Highly contagious and transmissible People become infected through contact with body fluids such as vomit, blood, feces or semen. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.
After the first known death in late April, the virus went undetected for weeks, when Congolese health authorities tested for a different strain of Ebola that was more commonly associated with outbreaks in the country. According to the World Health Organization, health officials have yet to identify “patient zero.”
Anaïs Legand, a World Health Organization expert on viral hemorrhagic fevers, said the scale of the outbreak so far suggested it “probably started months ago”.
The U.S. government has impose restrictions on any traveler Foreign travelers who have visited Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the past 21 days are prohibited from entering the United States and U.S. citizens and permanent residents are required to be transferred to Washington Dulles International Airport for screening.
India and the African Union said on Thursday that the India-Africa Forum summit scheduled to be held in New Delhi next week has been postponed due to “the evolving health situation in parts of Africa”.
The Congolese football team on Wednesday canceled a three-day World Cup preparation training camp and a farewell event for fans scheduled to be held in the capital Kinshasa due to the Ebola outbreak.
