Congo Ebola Outbreak Deadliest Ever; 2,300 Dead

"We rapidly need to scale up to be able to prevent more deaths from happening, more families and communities from being impacted," Trish Newport, emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, told the AP. She said limited community engagement remains a key problem: people "need to be involved in the response, and they need to know what the signs and symptoms are and what to do if they get sick. And this today is not happening in every single place where there are Ebola cases."

Newport said some families in the Ituri epicenter have lost as many as 15 relatives.

"This is a wake-up call," Fletcher said in announcing the U.N. money. "We need speed, scale and solidarity."

The WHO said over the weekend that the outbreak is still moving at an "exceptional pace" ahead of efforts to track it, and that "a substantial scaling up of response activities is underway to get ahead of the outbreak."

Dr. Justus Nsio, the Africa CDC's field incident manager for the response, told Al Jazeera the conditions in Ituri are brutal: "We are in a war zone, and the province is under a state of siege. We are making do with what we have to show our solidarity with the communities."

Dr. Thierno Balde, the WHO's incident manager for Bundibugyo virus disease in Congo, told Al Jazeera the spread is "mainly linked to the uncontrolled movement of people, particularly those who are ill, between localities that are already affected and neighbouring areas."

Furaha Gisèle, 35, whose uncle died of Ebola near Bunia, the Ituri provincial capital, told Al Jazeera: "Only God can spare us from this disaster."