Covering Ebola in a war zone: behind the scenes with CBS News

Democratic Republic of Congo – North Kivu is the most volatile region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo – an active war zone where last outbreak of Ebola is centered. Traveling in some parts of the country is so dangerous that we have to travel with an armed escort. The danger is omnipresent: behind the barrel of a militia gun or concealed in a deadly virus.

We start shooting in the Virunga forest, looking for bats, sources of the Ebola virus. It's a breathtaking place, but its natural beauty hides something even more sinister: we are less likely to be attacked by wild animals than by humans.

So to cover this story, producer Sarah Carter, cameraman Meshack Dube and I are traveling with Geoff Mabberley, a senior risk advisor at CBS News. Geoff regularly informs us about security in a war zone and how to mitigate the risk of contracting the Ebola virus. And on this mission, the thermometer is our most important weapon.

We take our temperature twice a day. A spike is a harbinger that something is wrong. Basic hygiene saves lives here. We use a chlorine spray that kills the Ebola virus. In high-risk areas of Ebola, we wear white protective suits, goggles and masks, which are a barrier to possible transmission of the disease.

"You go to war zones, you can see someone shoot you," says cameraman Meshack Dube. "Covering Ebola is something you can not see, we have caches for the GoPros, it's actually a lot of equipment, and if some of them are contaminated, that's something we'll have to throw out. far, unfortunately, "he says.

The next day, we will head to Beni, the epicenter of the disease in the DRC. Our first stop is the Ebola Treatment Center. The treatment of the Ebola virus has progressed significantly since the last deadly outbreak of 2014. At present, patients are placed in plastic isolation cubes, which provide a protective barrier between them and their doctors. Cubes greatly help prevent the spread of the disease, and apart from them, we do not need to wear our white suit.

But there are still times when health workers have to enter cubes and treat patients face to face. It's too dangerous for Meshack to film, so Dr. Junior Ikomo agrees to wear a GoPro during an exam. Then, it will be necessary to soak it in a bucket of chlorine to decontaminate it.

Carefully, in full protective clothing, Dr. Ikomo decompresses the plastic door of the cube and enters. He checks the eyes and mouth of his patient, each point of death. But Ebola is not the only enemy here. Twenty years of civil war mean that violence is now part of people's daily lives.

We wear protective clothing and helmets to accompany United Nations peacekeepers deployed in the region to protect villagers from the more than 30 armed militia groups operating in the region. One of them is the ADF, an Islamist organization based in Uganda that started attacking Ebola treatment centers.

We join the soldiers who patrol the bush where the militias hide. The thickness of the vegetation makes it difficult to follow activists.

Here, chaos means that health care workers are more terrified of violence than the Ebola virus.

But soon, we are swapping our body armor for Ebola armor to visit an Ebola children's unit. There are no isolation cubes here, because babies who have been or have been exposed to Ebola need to be touched and loved to blossom. Ebola survivors, who have become immune to the disease, take care of children and are able to hold them without protective equipment.

On the other hand, we must wear our white suits, our glasses and our gloves and stay away when we conduct interviews. It's very difficult to communicate with the people we talk to – we look and feel like extraterrestrials looking for information.

When we're done, Geoff helps each of us take off and vaporize the chlorine as we go. Removing the costumes is the most dangerous moment. Accidental contact and you could give yourself Ebola.

Unlike the people who live here, we can leave and return to our children, free from the burden of war and disease. But this time, the relief after the end of a dangerous mission is disabled. We will have to monitor our temperatures for 21 days, which corresponds to the period of incubation of the Ebola virus. In a war zone, the danger diminishes when you leave the area, but here it is invisible and may be in you.