Ebola outbreak underscores food insecurity crisis in DRC

The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has killed more than 3,000 people and infected over twice that many in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the CDC, even as roughly 26 million people across the region face food insecurity.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and World Food Programme staff describe a feedback loop: hunger weakens immune systems and makes recovery harder, while lack of food pushes people to move around or hunt in forests, both of which spread the virus further.

The WFP is feeding patients' families so the sick can isolate rather than leave to care for dependents, while researchers and a Gorilla Doctors veterinarian call for the government to build economic alternatives to forest reliance, noting the outbreak also threatens endangered gorilla populations.

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