SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is outpacing response efforts there. That's according to the World Health Organization. It says there are now more than 900 suspected cases and more than 220 deaths in the DRC. A small number of cases have also been reported in Uganda, but it's eastern Congo that is at the center of this outbreak. Heather Kerr is with the International Rescue Committee, an aid group. She's the country director for the DRC and has spent decades working there. She joins us now from Kinshasa to talk about the challenges facing these response efforts. Heather Kerr, welcome.
HEATHER KERR: Thank you.
PFEIFFER: I understand that while you are in the capital city, you are trying to get to one of the cities hardest hit by this outbreak. Tell us where you're trying to go, and what are the obstacles you're facing trying to get there?
KERR: Well, it's getting harder and harder to get to Ituri - the capital city of the province, Bunia, because borders are closing. The Ugandans have closed their land border apart from to food and to goods. There are no planes anymore. There are no commercial flights. So the only way to get from Kinshasa to Bunia now - safely - is to take a U.N. flight, but they're quite limited. At the moment, there are only two of them a week. And you can imagine with the scale of the outbreak, we really need more flights to get both people on the ground but also goods on the ground.
PFEIFFER: And the city you're trying to get to - Bunia - do you have contacts there, whether residents or aid workers, who are giving you a sense of conditions on the ground?
KERR: Yes, we have an office there on the ground. We've got about 25 people in Ituri at the moment.
PFEIFFER: And what are they telling you they're seeing?
KERR: Well, they're telling me they're very worried because this outbreak is really at a scale that we haven't seen before. The reason for this really is it was discovered so late. So what we're seeing is we've got a different strain of Ebola than the one we'd see normally, which is Ebola Zaire and for which there is a vaccine and treatments. For this particular strain, Bundibugyo, there isn't a vaccine and there aren't actual treatments, and it's much rarer, so it took a long time for people to realize that the strain was different. So that's slowed down the response, obviously, and it's allowed the virus to spread.
So speed is of the essence now. We really need to get the response up and running. We need the funding to come in, ensuring we keep our staff safe. We need to get the trust of the communities, which has been a problem. As I'm sure you know, some tents used for treatment centers were burned down. So we need to build trust and we need to get the medical response up and running.
PFEIFFER: You mentioned that this was discovered so late, in your words. What accounts for the delay in recognizing the outbreak and the severity of it?
KERR: I think, as I say, because it was a different strain, so they were testing for Ebola Zaire rather than this particular strain. But I also think there's been a real erosion of investment in the health system in DRC over the years, and that would include surveillance and training. So, I mean, you would think people would be trained to look for symptoms of Ebola. I mean, to be fair, they're very similar to malaria or even cholera, but then as it develops, it becomes more obvious that it's Ebola. So the lack of investment, I think, has really added to the fact that people weren't quick to recognize Ebola in the first place.
PFEIFFER: What are some of the biggest challenges facing IRC workers now when it comes to diagnosing patients, trying to slow the spread? What are the impediments?
KERR: One of the big impediments - a couple of them - Ituri is a conflict zone, so you've got different armed groups. So you've got to deal with the conflict. You've got to deal with keeping yourself safe in a conflict zone. You've got to deal with the fact that people move. They move all the time. They move across borders, but they move from province to province. And then there's over nearly a million displaced people in Ituri. So when you add that to an Ebola outbreak, it makes a really complex situation.
And then we've got this whole issue of trust, or the lack of trust, in the humanitarian community. And they - some of them don't believe Ebola exists. So we have to build that trust and we have to do it through members in the community. They're going to listen to respected community members. They're not going to listen to us. So we have to work on that alongside people who are working on the medical response. We had a lot more funding for the last outbreak. And we really need funding - you know, whether it comes from big donors, members of the public - to be in this race against time, which is what I would call it.
PFEIFFER: Beyond donations, is there anything else you wish you could get or see from the U.S. and the international community to help you in your work?
KERR: From the international community, in order for the response plan to go ahead that the Ministry of Health and WHO have drawn up, we need funding. We need experienced workers, people who have worked in previous outbreaks. We need courageous people to come and help us stop this outbreak.
PFEIFFER: That's Heather Kerr of the International Rescue Committee. She is the IRC's country director for the DRC. Thank you very much.
KERR: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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