6-month-old Ebola – Mourners in Bunia buried a 6-month-old girl who died of Ebola earlier this week, the third child to die at an orphanage in eastern Congo as the outbreak spreads. The funeral underscored the hardship of safe-burial rules and the strain on a response hampered by
BUNIA, Congo — Friday morning, mourners gathered at a distance while masked and gloved health workers lowered a small coffin into the ground.
The girl inside was 6 months old. She had died from Ebola earlier this week, and her burial marked the third death among children at an orphanage in eastern Congo as authorities struggle to contain the latest outbreak.
Carrying a cross, people stood back as the burial proceeded under strict safety rules. A Catholic priest prayed over her body, his voice mixing with the quiet movements of caregivers in full protective gear.
“It’s a feeling of sadness because we have lost one of our own, a daughter of the church,” said Father Innocent Ndogo. “As we have always said, the Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.”
In Ituri, the region at the center of the outbreak, officials say more than 90% of the cases have been reported. The region has also seen repeated friction between residents and healthcare professionals. including clashes over disrupted burials and the response to the outbreak. which has been militarized at times.
On Friday, that tension was visible in the funeral itself. Only healthcare workers in protective gear were allowed to handle the coffin and conduct the burial, giving the ceremony an impersonal edge that mourners said only sharpened the fear and grief around the disease.
The strain involved is Bundibugyo, and there are no approved treatments or vaccines for it. Even health workers have said they don’t have the masks, gloves and other protective gear they need.
The scale of the outbreak is worsening. Authorities have reported 894 confirmed cases and more than 200 deaths so far. Health officials note that the current outbreak is three times worse than a previous Ebola outbreak in Uganda in 2000. and that it risks 35. 000 suspected potential contacts. figures shared by Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Still, the present crisis is not nearly as deadly as the 2014 outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people.
For much of the early period of this outbreak, Bundibugyo was not tested for, officials said. The lack of testing is described as one reason the outbreak has spread as far as it has. The Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, has been responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 Ebola outbreaks.
As families tried to make sense of what happened to one more child, aid workers urged people not to turn away emotionally.
“She was a baby. She had her whole life ahead of her. Unfortunately, she was taken by the disease, a disease that, as you know, is transmitted from one person to another,” said Alex Lock, a Communications Officer at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
While the outbreak is concentrated in Ituri, cases have also been recorded in the North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. It has spread across the border to Uganda, where 19 confirmed cases have been reported and two people have died.
Ebola Congo Bunia Ituri orphanage death Bundibugyo safe burial protective gear shortage North Kivu South Kivu Uganda cases