A six-year-old child who tested positive for Ebola and disappeared from a treatment centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been located alive and receiving care, officials confirmed on Tuesday. The child’s absence sparked an intensive search involving local authorities and international health workers, and raised fears of a wider outbreak in a region already grappling with violence and mistrust of medical responders.
The child, whose identity has not been released, left the Beni Ebola treatment unit on Sunday evening. The facility, operated by the World Health Organization and non-governmental organisations, had been treating the patient for the haemorrhagic fever. Staff discovered the absence during a routine check and immediately alerted local police and community leaders.
British aid workers stationed in the region expressed relief. The UK has contributed millions of pounds to the Ebola response and seconded health professionals to the region. One UK official told this correspondent that the disappearance had been a “testing and anxious period” for all involved.
The search mobilised dozens of contact tracers and community volunteers. They combed the dense neighbourhoods of Beni, a city of several hundred thousand people, where Ebola rumours and resistance to outside medical intervention have previously led to attacks on health facilities. The child was found on Tuesday morning about 20 kilometres from the hospital, being cared for by relatives. Officials say the patient is now under isolation and receiving appropriate treatment.
Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the Congolese virologist leading the national Ebola response, said the incident underscored the challenges of containing a disease that thrives on fear and misinformation. “We are grateful the child is safe, but this shows how fragile our containment efforts are when families do not fully trust the care we offer,” he said.
The Beni outbreak, declared in April, is the second major Ebola epidemic in eastern Congo in five years. It has infected 10 people and killed three, according to the health ministry. The earlier outbreak, in North Kivu and Ituri provinces from 2018 to 2020, killed more than 2,200 people and was exacerbated by armed conflict and community suspicion.
The UK’s support for the region is part of a broader international effort to strengthen local health systems. The Department for International Development allocated 12 million pounds to the current outbreak. However, security remains a primary concern. Last year, a British nurse working for Save the Children was abducted in the neighbouring town of Goma and later released.
World Health Organization officials said the child’s safe return was a test of the evolving response strategy, which emphasises community engagement alongside medical care. “We cannot defeat Ebola without the trust of the people we are trying to help,” said Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
Beni remains under a state of siege imposed by the Congolese government to combat militia violence. The combination of Ebola and armed conflict makes this one of the most challenging environments for global health responders. The incident will likely prompt a review of security and surveillance protocols at treatment centres.
For now, the international community has been spared the prospect of a missing Ebola patient spreading the virus beyond known contacts. But the episode is a reminder of the precarious nature of epidemic control in fragile states.
