In an Ebola outbreak, hours matter. Yet the response to the deadly epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo is weeks behind. The virus has caused 220 suspected deaths and 900 cases, according to the WHO. It has spread to Uganda, where there are seven cases.
Health teams are racing to find thousands of people who may have been exposed. But they face huge challenges. Locally, there is mistrust and lack of supplies. Globally, the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO and funding cuts are hindering efforts.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: "The outbreak is outpacing the response." Attacks on health facilities make tracking cases nearly impossible.
In eastern Congo, hospitals have been attacked and isolation tents burned by angry mobs. The virus circulated undetected for six weeks. Cross-border spread is confirmed. Healthcare workers are dying.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a leading epidemiologist, said the outbreak is moving at "breakneck speed". He added: "If you had to choose a bad place for this to happen, it would be Ituri."
A U.S. official said: "The organizations that would have been able to do this work are not there anymore." CARE's country director said his team had been cut by a third.
Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people once they have symptoms. Contacts need to be found and watched for 21 days.
"We're going back to the basics of Ebola outbreak responses when we didn't have the means to contain it," said Dr. Alan Gonzalez of MSF.
People are afraid. Some cases disappear due to mistrust. Experts fear a repeat of the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak, which caused over 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.
