Michael Koloke

Dr. Jean Cassea, the Director General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that data shows this Ebola outbreak is among the largest ever.

Dr. Kaseya added that armed conflict in some areas affected by Ebola was a key operational challenge facing health agencies trying to respond.

Meanwhile, part of an Ebola treatment center in the Democratic Republic of Congo was set ablaze by unknown people yesterday, with reports that several patients suspected to be infected with Ebola had fled the facility.

For NPR News, I'm Michael Kaloki in Nairobi.

The WHO says it expects to see an increase in suspected infection cases given the amount of time the virus circulated before the outbreak was detected.

It rates the risk of spread of the disease in Congo and Uganda as high at the national and regional levels, but low at the global level.

The agency says health teams responding to the outbreak in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a region affected by armed conflict, face a series of challenges.

Dr. Marie Belizer is the agency's emergency director for Africa.

And residents in Congo report rising prices for masks and disinfectants.

For NPR News, I'm Michael Kloake in Nairobi.

According to Denise Brown, the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, UN staff who visited the city last week came across only a few people living inside empty buildings and rudimentary camps.

Brown, who described al-Fashr as a crime scene, said that the UN was very concerned about those within the city who are injured or detained.

The paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, captured al-Fashr in October this year after besieging it for 18 months.

Fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese armed forces has been going on for more than two years now.

Last month, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court expressed alarm over reports of mass killings in al-Fashr.

For NPR News, I'm Michael Koloke in Nairobi.