A day in the life of Congo's Ebola surveillance teams
Medical surveillance teams in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo, are struggling to contain an Ebola outbreak due to vehicle shortages and community resistance. Healthcare workers face significant challenges in tracking infections and identifying potential cases in a region with limited resources.
Why it matters
The report underscores the logistical and social hurdles in managing public health crises in developing regions.
On a good day, there are only four cars available to ferry surveillance teams round the city of Bunia, the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak surging through the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They were all out when Dr Moubarack Kano came in to work. So he set off in his own white Subaru Forester, with a colleague alongside him, piles of emergency alert forms stuffed into seat pockets and a rosary swinging from the rear-view mirror.
Reuters joined them on the round earlier this month, as they raced to track down infections and limit their spread across a patch with 1 million people in 23 health districts.
The vehicle shortage was far from Kano's biggest challenge.
In clinic after clinic, an inspection of the records showed staff had failed to report some suspected cases to central authorities.
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