JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
An Ebola outbreak is spreading through the northeast region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There have been more than 600 suspected cases of the disease and more than 130 suspected deaths. Aid groups are ramping up their response, sending in medical supplies and staff to help manage the spread. But as NPR's Fatma Tanis reports, they are facing significant challenges.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: The DRC does have periodic outbreaks of Ebola, but this is a rare strain of the virus, for which there's no vaccine. And Ituri Province - where the outbreak started - is rural, but towns are densely populated. Many people are constantly on the move, displaced by the ongoing violence in the region. Robyn Savage is the global humanitarian director for CARE.
ROBYN SAVAGE: They are unable to buy soap. They are without water. They are living in very challenging environments to begin with, in very close quarters with one another. So the longer displacement continues, the more challenging it's going to be just to manage transmission.
TANIS: Aid groups say the health infrastructure in this region has been weakened by lack of security and a shortage of health staff. So a lot of work needs to be done to raise awareness about the disease and the symptoms, says Dr. Manenji Mangundu with Oxfam.
MANENJI MANGUNDU: We are actually done a lot of awareness raising through radios to make sure that people, whenever they suspect, they should just take to the nearest hospital, and they should not be in contact with the fluids of that person.
TANIS: A key role that humanitarians play in these kinds of crisis situations is dispelling misinformation and distrust of authorities, says Rose Tchwenko with Mercy Corps.
ROSE TCHWENKO: The resurfacing of the myths, religious, cultural beliefs around illness, around Ebola.
TANIS: On Thursday, she says a hospital was attacked when family members demanded the release of the body of a relative who had died of Ebola.
TCHWENKO: There's an isolation area in the compound of the hospital where those remains were being kept before they could be released to the community safely. But frustrations just got the better of it, and so part of that isolation area was set on fire.
TANIS: Her team is now working with those family members on their concerns and fears. Meanwhile, Oxfam's Mangundu says one big concern for him is medical supplies.
MANGUNDU: Ebola is quite tricky. You need to have a facility for isolation. You need to have more chlorine or disinfection. We need to have clean water and soap.
TANIS: They also need proper disposal of contaminated materials and proper burial of contaminated bodies, since they can still spread the disease. Mangundu's team is working to buy all the soap and disinfectants available in the local markets for distribution. Normally, they'd be getting large shipments of medical supplies, but those have been hampered by funding shortages and border closures.
Ciaran Donnelly is the head of crisis response with the International Rescue Committee. He says there's also a global shortage of medical supplies due to the constraints on shipping routes from the Iran war.
CIARAN DONNELLY: We're also seeing an increase in costs. That means that our limited budgets enable us to reach fewer people because fuel and other supplies have gone up. So that's a global challenge, which is certainly impacting our ability to mobilize rapidly.
TANIS: Robyn Savage with CARE says she's feeling the absence of the U.S. in this response. It's the first outbreak since the Trump administration dismantled USAID.
SAVAGE: We really need the U.N. to play a leadership role here in procuring, securing and distributing these materials at the community level.
TANIS: Aid groups are facing this crisis without the institutional support they historically relied on, she says.
Fatma Tanis, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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