Samaritan’s Purse opening Ebola treatment centers in the DRC

The Samaritan’s Purse Christian aid organization planned to open the first of two emergency field hospitals to treat patients suffering from the Ebola virus outbreak on Monday, it said in a statement. The first hospital was located in Bunia, the capital city of hard-hit Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the organization said. Both field hospitals would have space for 40 beds each and would be staffed with trained Samaritan’s Purse doctors and nurses, the organization said.

The second field hospital would open soon in the nearby city of Nyankunde, and would help the local hospital handle the high volume of cases, according to Samaritan’s Purse. About 90% of confirmed Ebola cases were in Ituri Province, the organization said.

Samaritan’s Purse also airlifted personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, and would bring more in the future, the organization said. It didn’t specify what type of protective equipment it provided. Armed groups have attacked treatment centers several times during the roughly month-long outbreak, sometimes kidnapping healthcare workers or burning facilities.

What’s the latest on the outbreak? Authorities confirmed 676 cases in the DRC since the outbreak began, and 136 of those patients died, the World Health Organization said Saturday. Infected healthcare workers accounted for 16 of the confirmed cases. Meanwhile, Uganda reported 19 confirmed cases and two deaths. About 37 people across both countries had recovered, according to the World Health Organization.

Regional violence, displacement, and migration complicated efforts to contain the virus, the organization said. The last two outbreaks of this particular variant of Ebola, the Bundibugyo virus, had 30-50% fatality rates. However, the current outbreak so far appears to have a lower death rate, though deaths that occurred before the official outbreak declaration aren’t included in the count, according to the World Health Organization.

Dig deeper: Read Stephen Kloosterman’s report on an American missionary’s recovery after contracting Ebola in the DRC.