All 29 beds full, a patient crying on oxygen, a boy dying before admission. Butembo is overwhelmed and this outbreak is moving not shrinking.

Kitatumba centre run with MSF cannot keep up. Two new centres opened this week taking total to four. Government data shows 7,820 cases and 3,779 deaths nationally, North Kivu now a third of new cases with over 60 percent dying there versus 48 percent nationally.

Fear runs deep. One father now says Ebola does not exist after his 12 year old son died. Burial teams attacked with machetes, health posts torched. Only two of nine checkpoints work.

This is Bundibugyo species, not Zaire, so no approved vaccine, early signs look like malaria, fuelling hoax rumours. North Kivu saw three past outbreaks including 2018 to 2020. WHO and local leaders push trust building but funding is thin and pro government fighters guarding responders may worsen mistrust.

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