Women are the first caregivers in this Ebola outbreak and the most at
risk
[June 04, 2026]
By JUSTIN KABUMBA and MARK BANCHEREAU
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — Every day for the past week, Aline Kasiwa has fed
her sick mother, helped her drink and washed her clothes, all while
fearing she could catch the Ebola virus as eastern Congo is plagued by
one of the fastest-spreading outbreaks of the disease on record.
“She is the only family I have left. I cannot abandon her,” Kasiwa told
The Associated Press, adding that she is too afraid to take her mother
to the hospital where an infection could be confirmed. “These days we
hear that many people are dying there, even nurses,” she said.
With no protective equipment beyond a cheap face mask, the 28-year-old
in Bunia, a city at the heart of the outbreak, symbolizes the women in
eastern Congo who are almost always the first caregiver, a role that
health workers say is putting them at higher risk of contracting Ebola.
“It’s the woman who gives them a bath, it’s the woman who feeds them,
and it’s the woman who’s there to wash the dirty clothes and everything
else," said Dr. Furaha Elisabeth, director of the Karibuni Wa Maman
gynecology and obstetrics clinic in Bunia.
Bundibugyo, the type of Ebola in this outbreak, has no approved
treatment or vaccine. Even health workers have said they don’t have the
masks, gloves and other gear to protect themselves.
That leaves some women with impossible choices, especially pregnant
ones.
“When you see the way people die — even the nurses who treat us are
dying — how can you not be afraid?” said Anny Ekyambo, a 32-year-old in
Bunia who said she is too afraid to go to a clinic for checkups, even
though she is five months pregnant.
Ebola outbreaks have affected women more
The outbreak was identified weeks late because the rare Bundibugyo type
was not tested for at first. Congolese authorities said Wednesday they
have confirmed 363 cases, including 62 deaths, and more are suspected.
Neighboring Uganda has reported 15 confirmed cases, including one death.
It is not clear how many women have been infected. But history shows
that previous Ebola outbreaks have affected women more.
In the first recorded outbreak in the 1970s, women accounted for 56% of
deaths, UN Women said. During the 2018-2020 outbreak in Congo, the
deadliest in the country's history, women and girls made up about
two-thirds of reported cases.
“We will certainly see the same pattern emerge in the current outbreak,”
Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s chief of humanitarian action, said in a
statement. “Ebola transmission follows social realities. The virus
spreads along the lines of care-giving, domestic labor, front-line
health work and burial practices.”
Women in many eastern Congo communities are the ones preparing bodies
for burial.
‘They had no protection and no equipment’
At the Karibuni wa Maman clinic, staff said they had received no
personal protective equipment since the outbreak began, despite appeals
to health authorities.
Patients showing symptoms are examined at the clinic before being
referred to larger treatment centers, exposing doctors and nurses to
potential infection with minimal safeguards.
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Manza Pantience, a midwife at Karibuni wa Mama, supervises health
workers who collect patients' samples for Ebola testing at Sofepadi
Hospital in Bunia, Congo, Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses
Sawasawa)
 Julienne Lusenge, president of
Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, the aid
group running the clinic, said they have sought protective equipment
from various partners, receiving only hand sanitizer and a few masks
for nurses.
She said the equipment gap also endangers the women
caring for sick relatives at home, with most of them unaware that
Ebola may be the cause.
“During previous outbreaks, many women died because they were the
ones nursing sick family members,” Lusenge said.
Despite new arrivals of aid and better-organized health facilities
in recent days, Doctors Without Borders has said the virus continues
to spread faster than the response.
“Nobody knows the true scale and severity of this outbreak," Dr.
Alan Gonzalez, the medical charity's deputy director of operations,
has said in a statement.
The outbreak is unfolding in unforgiving surroundings. Ituri
province has poor road networks and underequipped health facilities
more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Congo's capital,
Kinshasa.
Attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces, a rebel group allied with
the Islamic State group, and a coalition of ethnic militias also
have hindered the response. Other cases have been reported in North
Kivu and South Kivu provinces where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel
group controls key cities Goma and Bukavu.
Wariness of outsiders after decades of conflict in the remote region
is another factor keeping people away from clinics and in women’s
care.
Pregnant women can be particularly exposed
Fears of contracting Ebola at a health center have become common.
Ekyambo, the pregnant woman in Bunia, said other women in the
community share her fear of going to the clinic.
“I know that there are steps we must follow with the doctors to
monitor the pregnancy and the baby, but we have no choice because
this epidemic frightens us,” she said.
UN Women has said pregnant women could be more exposed by their
frequent contact with health services.
Lusenga, however, warned that staying away from clinics could mean
missing crucial prenatal and postnatal care consultations.
“We risk seeing a rise in prenatal and postnatal mortality, for both
mothers and children,” she said.
___
Banchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal.
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