Aid workers are rushing supplies to the centre of the Democratic Republic of Congo's outbreak of a rare type of Ebola virus while beleaguered medical personnel struggle with a lack of equipment, a distrustful population and armed groups in a volatile region.
A cargo plane with aid donated by the European Union delivered masks, gloves, boots and medications - all of which are in short supply - to the northeastern town of Bunia at the heart of the outbreak in DR Congo's Ituri province.
United Nations-branded forklifts lifted several cases into trucks.
Health workers with scant supplies have been struggling to contain an outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a kind of Ebola that has no approved treatment or vaccine.
In some areas, doctors have resorted to wearing expired medical masks while treating suspected patients.
Dangers faced by health workers have been heightened by anger among residents over the stringent medical protocols for dealing with the bodies of victims, which clash with local burial rites.
Residents have launched at least three attacks against health centres in Ituri province.
Aid donated by the EU is expected to arrive in batches over the next eight days, Jérôme Kouachi, head of emergency operations at UNICEF in DR Congo, told the Associated Press.
World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was on his way to DR Congo to see the efforts first-hand.
The WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern in the hope of ramping up aid.
The DR Congolese government has confirmed more than 1000 suspected cases, with at least 220 deaths, since it declared an outbreak on May 15.
But the virus had been spreading undetected for weeks and the WHO suspects it is much larger than what has been reported.
The virus has also reached neighbouring Uganda, which has confirmed seven cases and one death.
On Wednesday, the DR Congolese government said the first survivor to recover from the virus had left a health centre.
"We are trying to catch up," DR Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said earlier this week.
"It is a race against the clock."
The response on the ground has been hampered by challenges including customs' red tape, insufficient storage facilities, bad roads and weak telecommunications, humanitarian agencies said in a report on Thursday.
Tedros on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in a region where armed groups have staged violent attacks for decades.
"We cannot build community trust or isolate the sick while bombs are falling," he said.
