Bunia, June 28th, 2026 (CPA).- A political stakeholder in Ituri Province, in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), on Saturday called for stronger public communication on Ebola recovery cases during a ceremony marking the discharge of five recovered patients from the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) at Bunia General Referral Hospital. « The communication at the beginning of the outbreak was inadequate, and we are now correcting it. It was a mistake to say that Ebola could not be cured or that no treatment existed. Ebola can be overcome if patients report to hospital early, where doctors are able to manage the symptoms, » said Luc Malembe. He stressed that better public information is essential to encourage early treatment and improve patients’ chances of survival.
According to him, ceremonies marking the discharge of recovered patients clearly demonstrate that the disease can be defeated when infected individuals seek prompt medical care instead of remaining at home. Mr. Malembe explained that patients admitted late have significantly lower chances of survival, as complications become more severe after several days of illness. He also deplored the refusal of some people to acknowledge the existence of Ebola, arguing that such attitudes contribute to increasing the number of deaths within communities. To rapidly break the chain of transmission fuelled by denial of the epidemic, Mr. Malembe urged the population to place their trust in medical teams and report immediately to Ebola treatment centres as soon as the first suspected symptoms appear, in order to improve their chances of recovery.