Fighting suspicion and mistrust about Ebola

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Disinformation and the Ghost of the 2018 Epidemic

The psychological weight of the current outbreak is heavily influenced by the trauma of previous epidemics. Adam Elisha Kabungulu, a teacher and survivor of the 2018 Ebola epidemic, is sounding the alarm on how rumors can become as deadly as the virus itself. During the 2018 crisis, which resulted in more than 2,000 deaths, disinformation mired the response efforts and fueled a climate of intense suspicion. Kabungulu’s own experience with isolation at Beni General Hospital nearly eight years ago serves as a stark warning to those currently living in fear. As bastillepost.com reported, he recalls the terrifying atmosphere created by local conspiracy theories. “When we received the news confirming the cases in Ituri, it really terrified us — it still terrifies us so much. Why? Because we don’t want what we went through to happen to others. During that previous outbreak, we lost our friends, we lost our brothers, we even lost the nurses who were fighting, who wanted to save us at the time,” — Adam Elisha Kabungulu The rumors Kabungulu faced were visceral and violent. He described how community members believed treatment centers were not places of healing, but sites of horror where “monsters” resided and where medical staff allegedly cut off the body parts of the sick or buried empty coffins. This deep-seated mistrust led many to avoid medical help, a trend that Kabungulu warns is repeating. He stresses that if the public fails to ignore these rumors, the disease will gain strength from them and continue to wipe out lives.

Violence Against Ituri Treatment Facilities

The physical safety of the medical response is also under siege. In Ituri Province, the infrastructure intended to contain the Bundibugyo strain has become a target for violence. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has issued a formal condemnation regarding the recent attack and destruction of a treatment facility serving affected communities. The destruction of these sites does more than just endanger frontline workers; it actively increases the risk to the general population. When treatment centers are disrupted, the ability to isolate infected patients, conduct contact tracing, and provide safe care is crippled. According to Africa24 TV, the Africa CDC is particularly concerned that this violence, coupled with community mistrust, could trigger a parallel crisis alongside the biological outbreak. “Communities are not the enemy in an outbreak response. Fear, misinformation, mistrust, and lack of engagement are often the greatest barriers to controlling disease outbreaks,” — H.E. Dr Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC To combat this, health authorities are looking to lessons learned from the 2018–2020 North Kivu outbreak, where technical interventions alone proved insufficient without community trust. The deployment of Community Health Workers and the recent discharge of survivors in Bunia are seen as critical steps toward rebuilding that essential social contract.

The Risk of Undiagnosed Cases and Hidden Infections

While official counts provide a baseline, experts fear the true scale of the outbreak remains obscured. The World Health Organization indicates that the infection has already claimed 60 lives and has crossed into neighboring Uganda, prompting the closure of the border between the two nations. However, frontline workers suspect the numbers are significantly higher because many symptomatic individuals are staying out of sight.

Metric	Reported Detail
Confirmed Ebola Cases	343
Reported Deaths	60
Current Strain	Bundibugyo
Total DRC Outbreaks	17 since 1976
US Financial Commitment	>$162 million

This phenomenon of “hiding” is driven by the fear of isolation. As WUSA9 reported, the tendency for individuals to avoid hospitals is often compounded by family members who hide sick relatives to prevent them from being taken away. “There is a high concern overall, but the main concern is that people are hiding. If I suspect that I have Ebola, I may not go to the hospital for fear of being isolated. This is also compounded by family members or community members hiding this person and not reporting,” — Faith Koskei, Head of MEAL at Save the Children The containment effort is currently hamstrung by a lack of essential supplies. Despite the U.S. State Department committing more than $162 million to support treatment and quarantine clinics, the immediate needs on the ground remain unmet. “We need protective gear, we need testing equipment, we need all the things that are needed to stop the spread of Ebola. We know what to do. We’re behind the curve, and time is of the essence,” — Greg Ramm, DRC Country Director for Save the Children As the virus continues to move through Ituri and toward the Ugandan border, the success of the response will depend as much on social engagement and the provision of basic medical tools as it will on clinical expertise. Without addressing the fear that keeps patients in the shadows, the official case counts may remain a mere fraction of the reality.