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Trish Newport

Trish Newport

Aug 21, 2026

9:51
She's been sharing her thoughts on how they're treating people in very challenging circumstances.
9:57
Today was a very busy day.
10:00
We have a project that was there even before Ebola in a place called Butembo, and we work in a displacement camp.
10:07
It is the most horrific humanitarian situation I have seen in a very, very long time.
10:14
Eighty thousand people living in very cramped, horrible conditions, and then Ebola started.
10:21
And so we built this eight-bed Ebola treatment center about an hour away from the camp, and in the last few weeks, the numbers have just exploded.
10:29
So we just scaled up to twenty beds, but it's difficult to actually do because then you have to find all of those staff, and then we need to be training them, making sure that they can work in a safe environment.
5:15
And some field workers have faced attacks by locals, correct?
5:18
It's true.
5:19
So every time there are new cases in a new area, it's important to be able to go right away and be able to answer the questions of the community, to be able to demystify the disease, follow up on rumors, and really engage with community leaders.
5:35
One problem and big challenge with responding here is that this is an area with massive, massive humanitarian needs.
5:41
It's an area of armed conflict.
5:43
You have hundreds of thousands of people that are displaced living in horrible situations.
5:48
So we also have to make sure that we're not just focusing on an Ebola response.
7:29
What are you hearing?
AdamHOST
1:36
How reliable is that number, though?
1:38
Just yesterday, the Congolese government put out a report and it said that there were 3,674 confirmed cases, 1,621 confirmed deaths.
1:44
This is huge.
1:44
We're only 11 weeks into this outbreak and we already have numbers like this.
1:58
And that at this moment, we see there still needs to be huge increase in the number of resources to be able to catch up to this outbreak.
2:06
There are still places where there are confirmed cases and there is no response today.
2:12
Usually in an Ebola outbreak, every time there's a new case, you have all of the six pillars of outbreak response surrounding that case to be able to respond.
AdamHOST
3:02
Have you been seeing that in your work?
9:09
Okay, well, on that point then, what isn't a day like for you right now in DRC?
9:16
I'm really the manager and the coordinator of MSF Switzerland's response here in Ituri.
9:23
So I work a lot.
9:24
I talk with all of our different projects, but I also work a lot in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and with other organizations all about how to collaborate and organize this response.
9:35
I, unfortunately, am in a lot of meetings.
9:38
But I also, in the end, we're responsible for the security management of our teams.
9:43
And this is, it's not just an Ebola outbreak.
10:57
And what are you seeing? I mean, we heard the WHO just a couple of days ago saying that this outbreak is the fastest spreading ever.

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