Ebola outbreak: Dr. Kalanzi fights to keep the virus from crossing Uganda’s border

Dr. Apollo Kalanzi points to two hospital waste bins, one red and one black, and objects to what he sees. Used needles sit in the black bin even though they belong in the red one. The black bin has no garbage bag, and neither container has a lid.

The shortcomings, he tells a hospital worker, increase the risk of infection. Uganda must be prepared, says Kalanzi, a 47-year-old specialist in epidemics sent by the country’s Health Ministry to a small hospital near the border.

His assignment extends beyond the hospital. He is expected to help prevent Ebola from crossing into Uganda and to work throughout the area along the frontier. Just a few kilometers away, across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a new variant has reportedly pushed the outbreak out of control, according to the United Nations. People are dying there every day.

Uganda has invested heavily in its response and may have built one of Africa’s most effective control models, the podcast says. For some time, the country has reported no new infections. The contrast with Congo gives added urgency to Kalanzi’s inspection of basic procedures, where a missing lid or incorrectly placed needle can become a problem in the effort to keep the virus out.

Africa correspondent Samuel Misteli accompanied Kalanzi through the hospital and onward to the border. In the NZZ Akzent episode, he describes the doctor’s problems in confronting a virus that is often fatal.

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We must be prepared.