Ebola Outbreak: CNN Correspondent Reports From Inside Democratic Republic of Congo
“So on my first day here, I’m sitting in the car and I hear this song,” Clarissa Ward says from Bunia, the capital of the province that’s the epicenter of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s latest Ebola epidemic. “Ebola, Ebola,” the CNN journalist sings, recreating the tune she heard on the radio. “Is this a song about Ebola?” she recalls asking her driver, thrown off by its upbeat sound. The driver explained that the song was a public safety announcement, offering directions for social distancing during the outbreak. The radio, Ward says, is one of the country’s most effective tools for disseminating public health information in a region where about 80% of adults are literate and only 22% have access to the internet. Those limited communication channels are among the many obstacles the DRC faces as it fights its 17th—and potentially largest—Ebola outbreak. USAID has been devastated, the World Health Organization is underfunded, and unlike its predecessor, the Zaire strain, this new Bundibugyo Ebola virus has no vaccine or treatment. Diagnostic testing is now …
