CITIZENS COMPASS— A team of Cable News Network (CNN), Inc. led by Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward has travelled to Bunia, the capital of the Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the epicenter of the ongoing Ebola outbreak.
Ward and team flew to Bunia from DRC’s capital Kinshasa, aboard a UN aid flight.
Also on the flight was the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who told Ward: “If we move fast – and we’re asking the international community to move fast in terms of funding and others – we can stop [the outbreak]… If we don’t take it seriously, of course it can outsmart us.”
When asked how the United States’ withdrawal from the WHO has impacted the response, Tedros said: “We’re working with the US. They’re working with us. They’re putting resources, they’re allocating a lot of money. So I’m glad to see this. And I can see commitment from all levels, starting from the highest to the technical people we meet on the ground. And that’s very good.”
On the ground in Bunia, Ward gained rare access inside what is called an Ebola ‘red zone’ inside a hospital, which is the area where all suspected Ebola patients are put.
Bundibugyo is a strain of the virus that few were expecting. There is no vaccine and no cure.
Unsurprisingly, Ward was asked to don a lot of protective gear before entering.
One of the challenging things for healthcare workers is that it becomes unbearably hot to wear these many layers of protective clothing for very long.
With so many layers on, the doctors finish by writing Ward’s name on her back so they can recognize her. They then entered the zone.
At the moment, many patients are being treated in hastily constructed tents.
The CNN team met 30-year-old Gloria, a lab technician and one of the dozens of health care workers believed to have been infected. She told Ward that it’s difficult to breathe.
Elsewhere in the ward, the CNN team met a 10-year-old boy, who recently recovered from a coma from confirmed Ebola. His condition is still very weak, and his mouth has been ravaged by blisters.
Ward also spoke to Dr. Richard Kojan, the ICU doctor on duty.
“For me, it’s our humanity,” Dr. Kojan said, when asked how he stays strong through this. “When people are suffering like this, I feel it.”
