101 dead in Congo's Ebola outbreak as safety risks mount for health workers

Harrison Cook -

The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed 101 people as of Sept. 24 amid rising safety concerns for health workers, according to the World Health Organization

Here are three things to know:

1. The outbreak, which started in August, has sickened 151 people, including 120 confirmed cases and 31 probable cases.

2. There have been a growing number of attacks by armed groups in the Congo's North Kivu province, which hinder health workers' efforts to investigate and treat Ebola cases, according to STAT's Morning Rounds e-newsletter. The WHO, along with its partners, halted response efforts for two days, starting Sept. 22 after an attack killed 21 people, reported The Guardian

3. These attacks, combined with community resistance and the disease's broad geographic spread, could cause the outbreak to significantly worsen, the WHO said Sept. 25, according to The Guardian.

"We are now extremely concerned that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks and months to create a potential perfect storm," Dr. Peter Salama, the agency's head of emergency response, said during a media briefing in Geneva.

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