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Reporter at epicenter of Ebola outbreak describes crisis · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: And health agencies are racing to contain the Abola outbreak
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  Speaker 1: as the death toll in a Congo passes sixty people.
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  Speaker 1: Officials confirm more than three hundred and fifty cases of
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  Speaker 1: the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
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  Speaker 1: Declan Walsh covers Africa for The New York Times, and
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  Speaker 1: he is there in the DRC getting a first hand
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  Speaker 1: look at this outbreak. Decline, thank you so much for
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  Speaker 1: coming on talk me through this. You went inside in
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  Speaker 1: a bowl, award at the epicenter of this outbreak. What
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  Speaker 1: did you see?
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  Speaker 2: That's right. That was in a mining town about called Mangbwalu.
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  Speaker 2: It's about fifty miles north of here, and it's where
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  Speaker 2: the outbreak is believed to have started, possibly as early
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  Speaker 2: as February, even though it was only declared on May fifteenth,
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  Speaker 2: and it's where there's been the largest number of cases.
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  Speaker 2: When we were there, you know, frankly, the situation in
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  Speaker 2: the public hospital that was completely overwhelmed. The doctors didn't
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  Speaker 2: have enough equipment. We were walking through wards where apart
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  Speaker 2: from the doctor leading us, every but nobody else appeared
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  Speaker 2: to be wearing any was wearing any protective gear. You know,
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  Speaker 2: we found a five year old boy who had just
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  Speaker 2: arrived the night before with severe bleeding. His father was
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  Speaker 2: standing over him. He was lying on this bare mattress.
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  Speaker 2: And what was particularly shocking was just a couple of
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  Speaker 2: yards away there was lying the body of a young
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  Speaker 2: woman who had died during the night. She just had
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  Speaker 2: a sheet pulled over her. And of course that's hugely
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  Speaker 2: problematic because with in in Abola outbreak, the bodies of
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  Speaker 2: people who have died are considered extremely contagious, and so
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  Speaker 2: of course that was potentially putting that little boy at
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  Speaker 2: risk and the other people in the world as well.
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  Speaker 1: Why the delay between when this outbreak is willing to
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  Speaker 1: have started and when it was actually reported.
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  Speaker 2: Partly it's because of the virus that's causing this outbreak.
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  Speaker 2: It's called a Bundy Buggio virus, which is a rare
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  Speaker 2: strain of the viruses the cause of bola. It's only
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  Speaker 2: a curt twice before, usually in pretty small outbreaks. And
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  Speaker 2: so when the you know, authorities in this area started
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  Speaker 2: to see this mysterious rash of deaths through the months
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  Speaker 2: of March and April, they they didn't know what they
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  Speaker 2: were and when they sent it for an abula test. Initially,
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  Speaker 2: when they suspected a bola, the authorities in this region
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  Speaker 2: only had a test for a different strain called the
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  Speaker 2: Zayir strain, and so they didn't initially diagnose it. So
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  Speaker 2: there was this delay of a week or two before
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  Speaker 2: that sample was sent to the capital, Kinshassa and confirmed
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  Speaker 2: that it was Bundi buggio. But that delay we still
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  Speaker 2: don't know, you know, when exactly this outbreak started. But
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  Speaker 2: what it meant in real terms is that the effort
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  Speaker 2: to push back this this outbreak is has really been
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  Speaker 2: hampered because the effort is so far behind the curve.
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  Speaker 2: As soon as it was discovered, there were hundreds of
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  Speaker 2: suspected cases, and so you know, aid workers and Congolese
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  Speaker 2: authorities tell me that they are racing to try and
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  Speaker 2: catch up with this virus right now, not just not
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  Speaker 2: to push not necessarily to stop the outbreak that's going
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  Speaker 2: to take some time, but just to try and contain it.
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  Speaker 1: What are the doctors you're speaking to saying about this outbreak, Well.
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  Speaker 2: Certainly the doctor that we met in this hospital was
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  Speaker 2: at that point really very angry. He was angry at
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  Speaker 2: the delay in finding this outbreak. He was also angry
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  Speaker 2: at the kind of broader international system of about response.
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  Speaker 2: He you know, at that point it had been twelve
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  Speaker 2: days since the outbreak had been declared, and he said, look,
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  Speaker 2: he stood in that ward and he said, it's been
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  Speaker 2: twelve days since this outbreak has been declared. Is this
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  Speaker 2: Is this the best we can do? Is this the
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  Speaker 2: best the system can do? Now? I should say that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, more aid has been rushed up to that
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  Speaker 2: area since we were there. I know there is a
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  Speaker 2: more concerted effort. Groups like Doctors Without Borders have set
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  Speaker 2: up an isolation ward in that in that in that area.
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  Speaker 2: And right now I'm in the regional capital, Bunya, and
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  Speaker 2: I was at the airport this morning. You know, there
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  Speaker 2: are planes arriving, supplies are coming in, but there still
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  Speaker 2: is a huge gap in terms of testing people for
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  Speaker 2: a bullet, to discover how far, how deep the disease
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  Speaker 2: has spread into the population, to discover its true extent.
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  Speaker 2: And then on top of that, there's a public education aspect,
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  Speaker 2: because you know, there's a great deal of distrust among
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  Speaker 2: the local community here about this outbreak. There are people
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  Speaker 2: who believe that a bullet doesn't exist. Many people here
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  Speaker 2: think that it's some sort of a conspiracy between local
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  Speaker 2: medical authorities and foreign aid workers, and what that's resulted
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  Speaker 2: in is sometimes chaotic scenes of attacks on isolation wards
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  Speaker 2: or attacks on Red crossworkers as they're trying to carry
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  Speaker 2: out safe burials of a bull of victims.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Declan Walsh, We appreciate your time today and
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  Speaker 1: the work you are doing. Thank you.