Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo faces a widening Ebola outbreak.
Biakato faces severe medical shortages and mounting deaths as health workers battle widening infections and an Islamic State threat.
The Congo Ebola outbreak has spread to eight provinces, six months after its detection in May. Meanwhile, an Islamic State threat has added to the challenges facing efforts to contain the virus.
In Biakato, a small rainforest town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, three-quarters of Ebola patients have died. Medicines, intravenous supplies and basic protective equipment have remained dangerously scarce.
The town suddenly accounted for as many as a quarter of new cases nationally. Yet residents had little support or equipment to protect themselves.
Bodies have accumulated on makeshift racks in a shed near the hospital gate. With the main cemetery full, new graves now occupy spaces between roadside palm trees.
Congo Ebola outbreak shifts to scattered hot spots
Initially, infections clustered in a handful of towns within one province. Since then, the epidemic has fragmented into numerous hot spots across an area roughly the size of Britain.
Health workers have brought the virus under control where they first detected it. However, infections elsewhere continue to rise, complicating the response across the vast rainforest region.
Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, who helped discover Ebola in 1976, criticised the response for repeating earlier mistakes. He now heads Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research.
Muyembe expressed disappointment that the campaign appeared to be starting again from scratch. Meanwhile, the Islamic State threat presents another challenge to containment efforts as communities such as Biakato struggle with scarce medical supplies.
