BUKAVU, DR Congo, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Cholera continues to spread in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with treatment centers in Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu Province, seeing a steady influx of patients as the country simultaneously battles an Ebola outbreak.
At the Saint Mathieu Hospital in Bukavu, health workers say new patients are arriving throughout the day, many of them already in critical condition. "Last night alone, we received 15 new cases, after another 14 during the day yesterday," John Muka, head nurse at the hospital's cholera treatment center, said Tuesday.
"You can see for yourself that more cases are arriving. We cannot go 10 or 20 minutes without a new patient coming in, often in a very critical condition," he said.
While national and international attention has increasingly focused on the DRC's ongoing Ebola outbreak, cholera continues to spread through communities in Bukavu and across the eastern province of South Kivu, putting additional pressure on a health system already confronting multiple emergencies.
Between January and August this year, the DRC recorded more than 39,400 suspected cholera cases and 1,173 deaths, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which has described the country as Africa's largest cholera hotspot.
The eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu remain the epicenter of the outbreak, together accounting for more than half of the country's new weekly cases, OCHA said.
At Saint Mathieu Hospital, those national figures translate into a steady stream of patients, some arriving already severely dehydrated.
For Julienne Mukasa, the deterioration in her mother's condition came quickly. "We were with her at home when she started telling us that she had a headache and body aches," Mukasa said. "We gave her some medicine, but afterward she started vomiting and having diarrhea."
The family took her to a nearby hospital, where health workers found her condition serious and referred her to the cholera treatment center.
Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by consuming food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Severe cases can lead to rapid dehydration and death if treatment is not provided in time.
But with prompt care, patients can recover. Atosha Mugisho recalled arriving at the center so weak that she had difficulty seeing and walking. "When I came here, my ears felt blocked, my vision was poor and I could not walk properly," she said. "They took care of me here, and now I am already doing well."
The continuing influx of patients in Bukavu reflects a broader challenge across eastern DRC, where insecurity, population movements and inadequate access to safe water and sanitation continue to fuel cholera transmission. Many of the same vulnerabilities are also complicating efforts to contain Ebola.
At a high-level cross-border meeting on the Ebola outbreak in August, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus drew an explicit connection between the two diseases. "Along the same rivers, roads and border communities, cholera is also moving," Tedros said.
While the pathogens are different, he said, vulnerability often follows the same routes, pointing to weaknesses in disease surveillance, access to healthcare, water and sanitation, and cross-border coordination.
North Kivu and South Kivu remain at the center of the country's cholera outbreak, while several provinces affected by cholera -- including North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri, Tshopo and Haut-Uele -- are also undergoing Ebola transmission.
The Ebola outbreak, caused by Bundibugyo ebolavirus, has spread rapidly since it was declared in May, prompting a large-scale response involving the Congolese government, the WHO, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and other partners.
But health authorities have repeatedly cautioned that responding to Ebola cannot come at the expense of other health needs.
Speaking to a WHO emergency committee on the Ebola outbreak on Aug. 18, Tedros said Ebola was only one of the threats confronting people in the DRC, alongside cholera, malaria, diarrheal diseases, maternal mortality and other conditions. Even as efforts are intensified to stop Ebola, access to other essential health services must not be disrupted, he said.
Speaking at a meeting organized by the WHO and the Africa CDC in Kampala on May 23, DRC Health Minister Roger Kamba argued that investments made during epidemic responses should leave behind a stronger health system. "With every epidemic, we hope to strengthen our health system, and to make every investment effective so that countries emerge safer with stronger health systems," Kamba said.
