The Ebola outbreak is outpacing the response in DR Congo. What's going wrong, and how can we address the situation?

Mongboalu Hospital, near the DRC's eastern border with Uganda, is at the centre of the Ebola outbreak. The facility was attacked by young men demanding the bodies of relatives who had died be handed over to them. Medical staff were forced to evacuate the site, and tents set up by the aid organisation Doctors Without Borders were burned to the ground.The hospital's director says the violence has made an already desperate situation even more difficult. There has never been an epidemic of this magnitude in the region. Rumours are circulating, with people claiming the disease came from this person or that. Now they have turned words into actions. By burning down the facilities, they are slowing our response to the contamination and efforts to break the chain of transmission. The bodies of those who have died from Ebola are highly infectious.With no vaccine or treatment currently available for the latest strain of the disease, doctors and nurses treating cases are at risk of infection themselves. The medical staff here are not trained to care for Ebola patients, which puts them at further risk since they do not know how to protect themselves. Several patients absconded during the fire, disappearing back into the local community, deepening the climate of fear. Health workers are running information campaigns to build people's trust. In the city of Bukavu, demand for handwashing stations and other hygiene installations has surged.Nonetheless, the World Health Organisation warns that the Ebola epidemic is outpacing efforts to contain it, and the situation will worsen before it improves. Joining us now is Christian Katze, the director of Doctors Without Borders Germany. Thank you for being here. Christian, the head of the World Health Organisation, states that currently the epidemic is outpacing us. Have authorities underestimated the danger posed by this Ebola outbreak? I do not believe they have underestimated it, but the nature and scale of the outbreak, along with the circumstances, have caused it to spiral out of control. Authorities have tested for Ebola virus, but they have not tested for the specific current strain, which allowed the outbreak to go initially undetected, making early intervention very challenging.Now that we know which virus we are dealing with, we hope there is still a chance to bring the outbreak under control, despite initial difficulties. However, we estimate that more than 1,000 people may already be infected. The number of cases and deaths continues to rise. What do medical teams on the ground need most urgently to control this epidemic? What is most needed are protective equipment, tents, and other isolation materials. Additionally, a large workforce is essential to gain community acceptance, implement infection control measures, conduct safe burials, follow up with contacts, and so forth.It is essential to curb the outbreak. However, we also need much greater diagnostic capacity, especially in some areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo where the central lab in Kinshasa still cannot confirm samples taken, which causes long travel times and significant delays. Additionally, the region faces other diseases that also cause fever and symptoms similar to those of the Ebola virus, making quick detection of confirmed Ebola cases very important. Currently, there have been several attacks reported on healthcare facilities in the affected area.