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00:03 Report | Elena Gyldenkerne
01:38 Wiza Bondele | DRC Ebola response team

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((PEOPLE IN LINE; TEMPERATURE BEING CHECKED - BOAT))

Somber-faced passengers await temperature checks after their boat was intercepted.

Their journey took a turn when a man died after developing symptoms consistent with Ebola.

 ((SOUNDBITE) (Lingala) PASSENGER ON THE BOAT, EBOBOKA LIBOBO, SAYING:))
     "They take our temperature and ask us a few questions about how we are: I am fine except for a little back pain, but that is due to the travel conditions."

All 200 passengers on board were screened by health workers upon arriving in Kinshasa.

The checks come as the Democratic Republic of Congo stays on high alert following an Ebola outbreak declared in May.

((MAP))

Government data shows the virus has spread to five provinces in eastern Congo.

Although the outbreak remains far from the capital, officials are stepping up precautions. 

((BOAT - KINSHASA ARCHIVE))

Everyone arriving by boat in Kinshasa is now being screened in an effort to keep the virus from spreading to the city, home to more than 17 million people.

((RURAL DRC))

But on the front line, many responders feel abandoned.

They're working seven days a week without pay.

((WIZA BONDELE AT WORK))

Wiza Bondele is one of them.

He goes door to door tracking Ebola, entering homes where someone has died and disinfecting everything left behind.

In July, he joined other healthcare workers in a strike over unpaid wages and dangerous working conditions.

((SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Wiza Bondele, Ebola infection control and prevention team: ))
“We work in risky situations. You may find yourself in a situation where a patient is vomiting blood, and you have to clean it up. We face those kinds of risks, and we deserve both our allowance and our salary."

However, the hardest part for him is the risk he's taking, not just for himself, but for his community.

((SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Wiza Bondele, Ebola infection control and prevention team: ))
“I could become infected with this virus, and then I could infect my family and my neighbors."

((VACCINE TRIAL Rwampara, , AFRICA, REP. DEMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO))

WHO officials warn the outbreak is spreading faster than efforts to contain it.

They're now urging Congo to test Ervebo, the only approved Ebola vaccine.

The call comes as the death toll nears 2,000.