Ebola fear keeps women and children from care in eastern Congo, worsening maternal deaths

Right · 2Fear of Ebola is keeping women and children in eastern Congo from seeking healthcare, health workers and aid agencies say. They say this is contributing to soaring maternal deaths and falling childhood immunization rates that could strain the health system for years. 1 2 Right · 1Health workers say misplaced anxiety about contact with Ebola is the main reason women skip prenatal care and give birth at home, and die more often when complications arise. 1 Right · 2Data are limited, but UN figures show maternal deaths in Ituri province rose nearly 70% between May and July compared with a year earlier. The article calls this a troubling indicator of the outbreak's impact on primary healthcare. The outbreak is Congo's worst on record. 1 2

Right · 1The UN population agency UNFPA reported a drop of more than 30% in hospital deliveries and of 50% in treatment for obstetric complications for May to July. Steep international aid cuts have also caused shortages of some life-saving medicines. 1 Right · 2At the Masiki healthcare center in Butembo, nurses said births at the maternity ward have fallen sharply since the outbreak was declared in May, and only one mother was resting with a newborn during a recent visit. Head nurse Liliane Adronga said women think the medicines contain the Ebola virus, and that they often delay care until too late. She recalled a woman believed to have lost her baby while suffering untreated malaria. 1 2 Right · 2The outbreak has spread across seven provinces, infecting more than 8,000 people and killing over 4,000. Officials say it is far from contained, though infections have slowed in parts of the country. 1 2

Right · 2Aid agencies say data from the first three months of the outbreak show a sharp fall in routine childhood vaccinations and paediatric visits. UNICEF warned in August that routine vaccinations fell by more than half across Ebola hot spots in Ituri between April and June, and first-dose measles vaccinations in Mongbwalu fell 69%. Across the province, facilities gave 23,000 fewer routine doses in May and June than in April. 1 2 Right · 2Congo's health ministry has recorded 126,000 measles cases so far in 2026, and the country has long had recurring measles outbreaks. UNICEF's Raoul Kamadjeu said concern should extend to Ebola's indirect effects on health, nutrition, child protection and insecurity, and that risks grow the longer an epidemic lasts. 1 2 Right · 2Parents describe fear and misinformation. Masika Furaha, a mother of three in Butembo, said she avoided facilities for fear of being sent to an Ebola treatment center, but later had her youngest child vaccinated after seeing vaccinated children stay healthy. Paediatrician Mupenzi Mumbere said a mother wept when he referred her son for an X-ray because she believed staff would kill him with Ebola. He said many parents try self-medication or traditional healers first, and some children arrive too sick to save. 1 2