doctors are struggling Ebola outbreak The Democratic Republic of Congo faces growing challenges as attacks on health facilities and patients fleeing the country are hampering response efforts in the north-east, Reuters reports.At least three such incidents have so far been reported in Ituri province, where Ebola cases were first detected. Two attacks over the weekend targeted the Mongbavalu General Referral Hospital, causing more than two dozen patients to flee.Dr. Richard Lokodu, medical director of Mongbavalu General Referral Hospital, told Reuters there was widespread disbelief and denial about the outbreak.“There is denial of the disease within the population, with some members wanting to claim the bodies of suspected and/or confirmed cases,” he said.According to Lokodu, 18 Ebola patients fled on Saturday when unidentified persons set fire to tents set up by the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontieres to isolate patients. Test results from four of those patients later came back, one of which confirmed Ebola infection.“So we have a confirmed case of Ebola that is spreading in the community and evading response,” Lokodu said.On Sunday, the hospital faced four more waves of attacks allegedly led by youths mobilized by relatives of a Christian religious leader Who Died of Ebola. Seven additional patients escaped during the unrest, while a critically ill suspected Ebola patient suffering from bleeding died while trying to escape during a second attack.Police fired shots into the air after an angry mob in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo attempted to take back the bodies of relatives killed at an Ebola treatment center in Mongbvalu in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local media reports, the BBC reports.Recent events have revived memories of the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, during which more than 25 health workers were killed in attacks targeting treatment centres.Frontline doctors are also struggling with a shortage of basic supplies as the virus spreads rapidly across the region. Lokodu said the attackers wanted the bodies of Ebola victims to be left for burial and warned that unsafe burials, where family members handle bodies without protective equipment, are a major driver of transmission. Earlier this week, a mob in the town of Rwampara, about 85 km south-east of Mongbavalu, set fire to a tent isolated at a hospital after they were prevented from taking the body of a man who died of Ebola for burial. World Health Organization The current outbreak has been described as the third largest outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain on record and has been declared a public health emergency of international concern.WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 900 suspected cases have been recorded so far, including 101 confirmed infections and at least 220 suspected deaths.Earlier on Monday, Congo’s neighbor Uganda reported two additional Ebola cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to seven.