Video: Ebola Comes for Congo’s Most Vulnerable Children

The arrival of a sick newborn at Saint Nicholas Orphanage in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo set off an Ebola outbreak that quickly spread among the country’s most vulnerable. Local health authorities are now monitoring the children’s home, but at least two babies have already died.

After five days of isolation, some infants who tested negative are being moved to a temporary home. They are all orphans brought to the hospital after showing symptoms, and they are in the first year of their lives. Alarms went off in late May when a newborn girl, Patience, developed a fever.

A pediatrician traced her mother’s case and learned the mother had Ebola when she died; Patience died at 9 days old. By the time staff at the orphanage understood the danger, some had already held and cared for her and more children began showing symptoms.

Democratic Republic of Congo, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

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