The Daunting Scale of the Ebola Response

Today on State of the World What it's like to be a healthcare worker at the center of an Ebola outbreak You're listening to State of the world from NPR bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dickon The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than three hundred people. That puts it on track to become one of the deadliest incidents of Ebola in recent history Today, we're going to hear about the challenges faced by healthcare workers in the center of the outbreak Turi provroince. Clinics there were struggling to function even before Ebola Now, the situation is dire reporter Emmt Livingstone tells us for frontline healthcare workers, every patient carries a risk. Community nurse Moise Bulabantu is on his cell phone He's in his tiny clinic serving about forty thousand people in the suburbs of Bunya, the capital of Iuri. An alert about a possible Ebola case has just come in. There are a lot of cases, he says Of about fourteen alerts we receive every day, about ten meet the definition for Ebola. protect It frightens us, the community nurse says, because we don't have protective equipment. We're extremely afraid Gulabantu, who is thirty eight, looks pale and overworked Not only does he lack protective equipment, but in his clinic, a low wooden building of several rooms, he has no way of isolating suspected cases. In Bunya, which has the biggest caseeload, a large screen in the city's central plaza plays a health warning listing embola symptoms such as fever, headaches, and vomiting This message urges anyone with symptoms to seek medical treatment Lots of people are sickening and dying at home unnoticed. The province is about the size of West Virginia and is very rural. It has few good roads, several ongoing armed conflicts, and about nine hundred thousand people living in displacement camps. Anyone who shows the compassion and the care to take care of those who are sick at an Ebola outbreak end up being the next victim. That's what makes this disease so terrible, right? So family members who take care of their loved ones, health care workers, clinics and hospitals. Shannon Hamilton is the team lead for evangelical aid orrganization, Samaritan's Parace Inaturi Aid organizations are trying to train health staff across Iuri. But the scale of what needs to be done is daunting. Ebola has been reported in over half of the province's health zones, many of them difficult to access. There's about twenty two or twenty three health zones now that are affected by the outbreak. A lot of those health zones aren't receiving a lot of that training and resources and support yet at this time This challenge is more acused outside of Bunya, the province's only city Take Nan Kunde Hospital, where an American doctor contracted Ebola in the early days of the epidemic. He was evacuated and later recovered Health workers here still say they aren't receiving enough PPE Desi Duabu is the head doctor of the Neanunde health zone. It's not a rosy situation, says Duabu. It's so difficult Eight hospital staff have been infected and one student doctor has died. The first recorded Ebola case in Yan Kunde, a pregnant woman, also infected other patients because she wasn't isolated. She died soon after being admitted. Conditions are better than they were several weeks ago because a new Ebola treatment center is opening next door. But when we visited in mid June People suspected of having Ebola were still mixing with others, and one small restroom facility served all the patients, regardless of their illness.. Duabu says that he and his colleagues summon the courage to help the sick because they must. But without enough PPE, the stress of getting infected is always there In a turi, even the smallest gesture, opening a door, touching a chair. become a calculated risk. As Ebola spreads through these under resourced clinics The line between caregiver and patient grows ever thinner for NPR News. I'm Emmett Livingstone in Bunyan. That's the state of the world from NPR Thanks for listening