NAIROBI: Sanitation workers from Bunia city government spray disinfectant in the central market area near a rubbish truck in Ituri province, as they continue efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo recently. — AP NAIROBI, June 12 (Reuters): The UN refugee agency confirmed the first Ebola-related deaths in a displacement camp in eastern Congo, as aid workers warned of a high risk the disease could spread rapidly in overcrowded sites.
The two victims were internally displaced people living in the Kpangba camp, which hosts 30,000 internally displaced people, the UNHCR said in a report published on Thursday.
The virus has now spread across three provinces since the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on May 17.
The affected provinces - Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu - have been devastated by decades of conflict and are home to more than 5 million displaced people.
A Congolese health ministry report seen by Reuters showed that a 60-year-old woman in the camp tested positive for Ebola on May 30. By then, she had broken out of quarantine and could not be traced by teams, the report said.
She died on May 31 and her daughter died on June 1, an aid worker with knowledge of the cases told Reuters, adding that their bodies had both tested positive for Ebola after their deaths.
Humanitarian workers later discovered the bodies, but community members began pelting WHO vehicles as they tried to approach, the source said.
There are many "blind spots" in the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a World Health Organization expert said on Friday, suggesting the spread of the deadly disease may be much wider than official estimates.
Congo said on Thursday the disease had spread to three new health zones. It reported 676 confirmed cases and 136 deaths in an outbreak that has also spread to neighboring Uganda.
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