Threats By Text, A Mob Outside The Door: What Health Workers Face In The Ebola Zone

A text message that says, "Stop or We'll kill you."

A knock on the door in the middle of the night.

Leaflets telling your neighbors that you are the enemy.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo these are the kinds of threats that health workers in the Ebola outbreak zone have been getting for weeks.

For five days this past week alone health workers had to stop all operations because of violence directed toward the Ebola response – resulting in a surge of new infections that's brought the total caseload to more than 1,600.

A Mob Outside The House

For Dr. Joyeouse Kivwira the moment of reckoning came on an afternoon late last month. She was preparing lunch at her home in a village called Magherya when she heard a crowd gathering outside.

She looked out her window and saw