Death Toll From Congo's Ebola Epidemic Surpasses 500

With Meghna Chakrabarti

Ebola deaths top 500 in Congo. We have a report from the frontlines.

Alex Wade, emergency coordinator for Doctors without Borders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Guardian: "Ebola vaccine offered in exchange for sex, Congo taskforce meeting told" — "An unparalleled Ebola vaccination programme in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become engulfed in allegations of impropriety, amid claims that women are being asked for sexual favours in exchange for treatment.

"Research by several NGOs has revealed that a deep mistrust of health workers is rife in DRC and gender-based violence is believed to have increased since the start of the Ebola outbreak in August.

"The research, presented at a national taskforce meeting in Beni, follows calls by international health experts urging the World Health Organization to consider issuing a global alert in relation to the outbreak. The experimental vaccine has been described by the WHO as 'highly, highly efficacious' and hopes have been pinned on it controlling the outbreak."

ABC News: "Nearly 100 children dead as world's 2nd-largest Ebola outbreak surpasses 800 cases" — "The second-largest, second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has claimed the lives of nearly 100 children.

"At least 97 children, 65 of whom were younger than 5 years old, have died from Ebola virus disease in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since the outbreak was declared there Aug. 1, according to a press release from Save the Children, a charity supporting the fight against the current epidemic.

"'We are at a crossroads,' Heather Kerr, Save the Children's country director in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said in a statement Sunday. 'If we don't take urgent steps to contain this, the outbreak might last another six months, if not the whole year.' "