Fighting Ebola in the DRC

Dr. Andy Lephard, a family doctor in England, talks honestly about the blessings and challenges of treating Ebola patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during this 2026 outbreak.

Dr. Andy Lephard joined the first Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) in Ituri Province. He has served as a family physician for more than two decades in England.

This response was his third deployment with our DART and his first time treating Ebola patients. In the interview below, Dr. Lephard details his experiences during a three-week stint at our Ebola Treatment Center in Bunia.

What made you want to join this response?

I've worked in French-speaking Africa in the past, so I already felt something of a connection, and many of my patients in the UK are refugees from eastern DRC. They are quite amazing people, full of faith, who've told me just how difficult it's been over there for decades. Many have been uprooted from their homes and had to flee. Eastern DRC is somewhere a lot of the suffering has gone relatively unreported. And now to face Ebola on top of that? This response just felt very important to me.

How did this response shape your faith?

This response was the one where my faith in Jesus and my hope in the resurrection were most crucial to the work. Jesus is the resurrection and the life. That is a future hope, and it also offers hope in the present as we treat people whose bodies are damaged by Ebola. I was praying and believing that God could miraculously restore each patient we treated, and we saw Him heal many of them.

There were many times in the hot zone when I was just overwhelmed by this sense of the sacred in our work, knowing God was hearing our prayers. I really don't think I could have gone with a secular organization.

Was it safe?

There is a risk here. You can't deny that. But I felt I was in very safe hands. We are very well trained in how to use PPE (personal protective equipment), and while I didn't feel like anyone was trying to scare the living daylights out of me, there was an appropriate level of seriousness.

What did your family say?

I have three boys who I think felt very proud of me. They understand why I'd want to do this. My wife kind of understands how my brain works and why I might be crazy enough to want to do this kind of thing. They had a veto, especially my wife, but she told me, “It's OK. You should go.”

What does a day in the Ebola Treatment Center look like?

You have a donning area where you're putting on all your layers of PPE with people there to make sure there’s not any skin showing by accident.

In the hot zone you have a spotter on the other side of the fence with a written list of the jobs that need doing. They might say, “Now go in room four, turn the IV on.” or “Put up a new fluid.” Or, “Now go into room seven and check that this person is OK. Are they conscious?”

We'd always go in pairs for safety, always checking on our buddy: “How are you feeling? Are you managing?” Usually I'd know I needed to come out because my mask would get so saturated with sweat that I'd start finding it hard to breathe.

Then out through the doffing area, we’d take off all the layers in a clear, prescribed order. There are 30 or 40 steps and someone telling us each one. “Take this off. Now wash your hands. Now take this pair of gloves off. Wash your hands again.” They're there to keep you safe.

I thought the PPE would be a huge barrier to connecting with patients, but somehow it wasn't. They could still recognize me somehow, partly because I was speaking French—with probably a bad accent.

What would you say to someone considering this Ebola response?

It's not easy. I had to think about my own health and my own risk. I thought about my family and my obligations to them. But it was an opportunity to serve in a difficult place with a team of incredibly professional people.

More than anything, I just needed to know whether this was something God wanted me to do. After conversations with my family and time with God, I came away convinced that this response is so important, and such a privilege, that I did really want to be part of it.

I couldn't tell somebody else how to make that decision. But I think just to come openly before God and say, “What would You have me do? Is it possible that the skills and the abilities You've given me are for this?” God had really prepared me for this, over a number of years and in lots of different things I've done.

I don't think there's anywhere else I'd have rather been.

For more than a decade, Samaritan's Purse has been responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases, including cholera, COVID-19, diphtheria, and the Ebola virus. Our previous responses have given us the knowledge and experience to develop training and protocols to treat and help contain the disease while maintaining the highest standards for safety. Still there are risks that need to be prayerfully considered before joining an infectious disease DART. Here are many of the common questions we hear.

Descargar a list of the vaccination requirements for this response.

We join you in praying for God’s wisdom and guidance as you consider this and other opportunities with our Disaster Assistance Response Team.