SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
There is an Ebola isolation ward in eastern Congo in the city of Butembo. It has 15 beds for patients who are sick and waiting on test results, another 15 for people who have tested positive for Ebola. And tonight it is completely full.
RUPA NARRA: There's two young children, both under the age of 1, that are quite ill.
DETROW: Rupa Narra is a pediatrician from Elmore, Ohio. She is there working for Doctors Without Borders. NPR's Durrie Bouscaren spoke to her about this Ebola outbreak and its impact on children.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: Rupa Narra remembers every face of every child she's treated in Butembo.
NARRA: I think about them all. So I know the age, place of birth and date of symptom onset, name of their mom.
BOUSCAREN: One of the hardest things in an Ebola ward, she says, is helping the kids feel a little less scared.
NARRA: Because I'm a pediatrician, you know? Like, I'm like, I'm a pediatrician at heart.
BOUSCAREN: You can't bring in a toy to distract them, wear a funny hat. You can't hold their hand when they get really sick. And she's limited to about an hour at a time.
NARRA: That's been the very difficult part for me - is I can't be next to the bedside of this critical child.
BOUSCAREN: Every day, before she enters the ward, Narra suits up in a fully disinfected hazmat suit. Only her eyes are visible.
NARRA: You're 5 years old, and these people walk in with what looks like a space suit. Of course they're going to scream.
BOUSCAREN: She remembers one patient in the quarantine unit, about 5 years old, who loved Bollywood movies. Her dad would sit with her, playing songs from the film "Desi Boyz" on a smartphone.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUBAH HONE NA DE")
DESI BOYZ: (Singing in non-English language).
NARRA: She was watching, like, a Bollywood movie that I knew.
BOUSCAREN: Narra's family is from southern India. She grew up on these movies. So after the visit, she took off her gear, went outside to her patient's window and did her best Bollywood dance moves through the glass - this time, looking like herself.
NARRA: And then she was smiling, laughing and clapping. And I was like, this is hilarious (laughter). I'm like, I don't even know these moves, but I will make them up for you.
BOUSCAREN: There's still no approved cure for this new strain of Ebola virus. About half of the people who are diagnosed with it die within a week or so, and it's even deadlier for children.
NARRA: And so, right now, it's a lot of supportive care. So that means giving IV fluids, giving oxygen, treating their glucose, treating hypothermia.
BOUSCAREN: In 2014, Narra was part of the response to Ebola in West Africa, an outbreak that killed 11,000 people. She was working in an emergency department in Brooklyn when COVID hit the United States.
NARRA: I've never seen anything like this. The speed of transmission that this is working at, along with other aspects of a fragile healthcare system.
BOUSCAREN: There's a tricky thing about taking care of young children in an Ebola ward. Because there's no approved vaccine, it's hard to find someone already immune to the virus who can watch over them.
NARRA: When a parent comes in with a child, and then if that child tests positive, it is a complex situation to figure out how we can have a caregiver with the patient.
BOUSCAREN: A couple of weeks ago, Narra says a mother in their ward died shortly after giving birth, leaving her baby girl entirely alone.
NARRA: I didn't know what we were going to do with this baby because there were no other family members that had been exposed, and there was a high likelihood for this child to have Ebola, this very young newborn.
BOUSCAREN: But when she entered the baby's room, there was a woman there holding her in her arms.
NARRA: And actually, it was an Ebola survivor and did not know the family and agreed to take care of this baby.
BOUSCAREN: Narra says the baby lived for 10 days. Almost every newborn who has caught the virus in this outbreak has died. Narra fears many more will lose their lives. Durrie Bouscaren, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAZZY STAR SONG, "FADE INTO YOU") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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