SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
Health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo say more than 5,000 people have contracted Ebola in the past three months. Almost half have died. It's the fastest-growing outbreak of the virus in history. NPR's Durrie Bouscaren reports.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: Tulane University epidemiologist Lina Moses spent two years responding to the 2014, 2016 Ebola outbreak. It killed 11,000 people in West Africa. And she fears this outbreak will be worse.
LINA MOSES: I'm not surprised because at the beginning of this outbreak, it was clear we were very behind in response. And we haven't seen the international support that we need to stop this.
BOUSCAREN: Ebola was likely circulating in eastern Congo as early as February, but testing problems and limited public-health resources delayed the response.
MOSES: Ebola doesn't happen in a vacuum. It happens where there are failing health systems that are not protecting people from all the other diseases out there.
BOUSCAREN: Congo's minister of health, Samuel Roger Kamba Mulamba, announced this week that more than 5,000 people have contracted Ebola since the outbreak was officially declared three months ago. In a televised briefing, he said the Congolese people have a right to be afraid but shouldn't panic.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAMUEL ROGER KAMBA MULAMBA: (Speaking French).
BOUSCAREN: "We will have more deaths this year from malaria," Mulamba said. "We'll have more deaths from tuberculosis, HIV, women giving birth." He tried to reassure people, saying 85% of cases are still concentrated in the hardest-hit Ituri Province. Vaccines for this strain of Ebola are in clinical trials. But Dr. Manenji Mangundu, Oxfam's country director for the DRC, says the outbreak is far from under control.
MANENJI MANGUNDU: We are doing catch-up, to be honest, because also we had challenges of funding.
BOUSCAREN: He says aid cuts from the U.S. and other countries have left aid groups limited in the help they can provide, and government health workers have been protesting because they haven't been paid. The Congolese government says it's due to logistical delays in getting money to the center of the outbreak.
MANGUNDU: Imagine living in a zone where there's Ebola. You're under stress. There are so much difficult conditions around the epidemic areas. And then you are not paid.
BOUSCAREN: Mangundu says his fear is that the outbreak will still be growing when students return to school in September.
Durrie Bouscaren, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.