Duty of Care

On Saturday, October 24, 2026, a nurse was killed and another health worker severely injured when they were attacked while responding to an Ebola alert in Bafwasende, a rural town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Tshopo province, according to UN News and Al Jazeera. UN News reported that the nurse was killed by protesters; the injured health worker remains in hospital.

UN Senior Ebola Response Coordinator Julien Harneis condemned the attack and called for a thorough investigation, and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Everyone working to protect communities from this deadly disease must be able to work in dignity and safety.” Al Jazeera reported that the attack is the latest in a series against health workers and responders in the outbreak, and that local authorities had not commented on the suspects.

This is a non-U.S. incident shown because no verified serious U.S. healthcare worker incident was found in the past 14 days. For any health workers sent into the community, the defenses to check are security assessments before visits, never sending staff alone into tense settings, ways to call for help and leave, and community engagement that builds trust. These are organizational controls, not just individual caution.

• UN News
• Al Jazeera