Every time Vanny Birungi, a volunteer with the Red Cross in eastern Congo, goes out to raise awareness about the latest Ebola outbreak, as suspected cases near 1,000, she faces a double threat.

One is the rare Bundibugyo type of Ebola, for which there is no vaccine or treatment. The other is the anger and suspicion of residents, who have pelted her with stones and subjected her to verbal abuse in Bunia, a city at the heart of the outbreak.

“We continue to tell them that the disease is out there. Some accept, and others don’t,” Birungi said yesterday, as she and colleagues spoke with groups of people in a working-class neighbourhood under the scorching sun.