Everyday Emergency

Ebola in DRC: Suiting up and saving lives

Everyday Emergency

Show Notes

The current outbreak of Ebola disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has become the third largest on record. It is also the fastest-growing.

As of 26 July 2026, more than 3,200 cases have been confirmed, of which 1,400 people have lost their lives.

Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams have been on the ground since the early stages of the outbreak, working in partnership with local communities and the Congolese health authorities to treat critically ill patients and help contain the disease itself.

But what is it like to be part of the team on the frontline of this humanitarian emergency?

Dr Johnny Falconer is a medical doctor, currently completing his mandatory isolation after working in Ituri province, one of the areas hardest hit by the outbreak. He joined us from Kinshasa, capital of the DRC, to share his experience.

To find out more about MSF or to make a donation, please visit msf.org.uk

---

Presented by Amber Dowell Edited by Sandy McKee Series producer: Mark Lankester

Photo: Julien Dewarichet / MSF Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from Everyday Emergency

Sep 14, 2026

The word healing can mean different things.

Jun 24, 2026

Right now, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams are working to provide life-saving care in crises around the world. But what about the lives that can’t be saved? Ciara Flood is an MSF nurse with a special interest in palliative care. She joins us today to talk about reducing suffering, crossing cultures, and putting patients first.

May 29, 2026

Every May in London, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hosts Scientific Days, an annual innovation conference. The event brings together medical and humanitarian experts from around the world to share the research they have been doing into the conditions and crises that they face every day. In this episode of Everyday Emergency, we spoke to three specialists about their research and how it could help patients. From a game-changing antivenom to new tools in malaria prevention and the science of documenting traumatic injuries in Gaza, this is a behind-the-scenes look at life-saving innovation.

May 6, 2026

April marked a sobering milestone: the three-year anniversary of the ongoing war in Sudan. The scale of the crisis has become enormous, with 33 million people now in need of humanitarian aid – more than the entire population of Australia.

Mar 31, 2026

For the past weeks, the world’s media has been focused on the crisis in the Middle East. The sharp escalation in violence has brought fear to the lives of millions of people. Airstrikes have hit densely populated areas with particular ferocity in Iran and in Lebanon, where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams across the region have been adapting their programmes to respond to the crisis. However, behind the headlines, on the other side of the Greater Middle East Region, a long-term humanitarian crisis continues to play out in Afghanistan. For this month’s podcast, we spoke to Dr Mohammad Qaher Poya, the deputy nursing director at MSF's specialist trauma centre in Kunduz, a city in northern Afghanistan. The trauma centre was originally set up to meet the needs of people injured during the war in Afghanistan. Now, in this post-conflict environment, the team uses their long experience of dealing with what's known as 'mass casualty incidents' to save lives when the sheer number of patients threatens to overwhelm the hospital. Dr Poya took a break between busy shifts to call us from Afghanistan. If you would like to support our life-saving medical work around the world, please visit msf.org.uk to make a donation. Thank you.

See all episodes →