Health workers at Rwampala hospital in the DRC have been on the frontline of the Ebola outbreak since the first case was identified less that two weeks ago. But treating the deadly disease isn’t their only challenge - they’re also working to prevent the spread.
Squeezed onto the back of a motorcycle, clearly exhausted and symptomatic, a young woman arrived at Rwampara hospital, where overwhelmed health workers have found themselves on the front line of a deadly Ebola outbreak.
The town in the violence-hit east of the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the centres of a recent flare-up in cases of the highly contagious disease, which can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
Since the current outbreak was declared on May 15, more than 220 suspected deaths and 900 suspected cases have been identified, according to official figures, in what the World Health Organization has declared an international emergency.
Experts suspect the virus was circulating under the radar for some time and that the true extent of the health crisis has yet to be seen.
