Declan Walsh, NYT Africa Correspondent: "It all boils down to two factors, conflict and gold."

Declan Walsh, the acclaimed New York Times Africa correspondent, visited the hot zone of the Ebola outbreak in Ituri Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) from May 22 to June 12, the "perfect petri dish." How to explain the "enormous lag" in acknowledging the outbreak and responding to it? "It all boils down to two factors, conflict and gold."  Will the outbreak grow exponentially or burn out? Insecurity will dominate, but it is not at all certain how that is to be managed. Things have begun to go better in expanding testing and treatment capacities, while contact tracing lags, at just over 50%. There are worries that the outbreak is spreading already from Ituri into North Kivu province, potentially into areas controlled by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the Uganda-origin Islamist armed group. Interest is rising inexorably in seeking a cease-fire, given the acute vulnerability of health and emergency assistance providers. The United States is now coming in strong with over $700m in investments, but on a parallel track, separate from the incident management mechanism run by WHO and the Africa CDC, which is stirring some tensions with Congolese authorities. The U.S. effort to create a treatment unit on a remote air base in Kenya has generated considerable protests and political challenges for Kenyan President Ruto.