Emmett Livingstone

Our lost and found is currently filled with pants.

I don't know what, I've never seen this happen.

I'm here in Rampara Ebola Treatment Center.

All of us are in full protective gear, which includes a bib, two layers of clothing, several layers of gloves, goggles, a mask.

It's difficult to describe the level of discomfort wearing one of these suits.

It's very hot in Oturi.

The sun is bright.

It's very difficult to breathe inside the suit.

And on top of that, the goggles fog up, so it's also difficult to see.

The Ebola patients themselves, some of them appear to be in a great deal of pain.

We heard some people crying out.

The doctors said that at a certain stage of the Ebola virus disease, the whole body aches, and it's extremely painful.

Congo says health workers are tracing 72% of the contacts of Ebola patients.

But aid workers disagree.

Some senior aid workers say that they're only managing to trace about 40% of contacts.

The Turi's health system has been devastated by decades of conflict and neglect.

Kambali's medical staff there say they're also struggling to isolate suspected Ebola patients.

Until recently, patients regardless of ailment were sharing toilet space at a rural hospital.

Fixing these problems involves the slow task of building new infrastructure as Ebola spreads fast.

For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone in Kinshasa.