From the New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrowaf. This is the daily.

At the front lines of the Ebola crisis in Central Africa, badly equipped health workers with

little outside support are losing the fight against one of the worst outbreaks in history.

Today, my colleague Declan Walsh takes us to the epicenter of the virus to understand why, so far, its spread has been nearly impossible to stop.

It's Wednesday, June 3rd.

Declan, thank you so much for doing this.

Where are you right now?

I'm in Bunya, a city in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Okay. So you've been in the DRC for about a week and a half covering this horrific Ebola outbreak.

So just tell us what you're seeing, what it's been like on the ground.

It's a really dire situation here right now.

This outbreak was only detected just over two weeks ago,

but the virus was probably spreading for two, some groups are saying, even three months before

it was detected. And so we just don't know how deep, how wide it has gotten into the population

in these areas. And that's really hampered efforts,

not just to treat the people affected by the disease, but to contain its spread. And in terms of

numbers, cases, deaths, where do things stand? So far, about 250 people are confirmed to have died.

There are about another 1,100 suspected cases.

But the true spread and extent of this virus is thought to be much, much wider than that.

And I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that the virus is way ahead of the response at this point.

Already, this is the third largest Ebola outbreak on record.

And there are a group saying that it has the potential to become the largest ever. Now, that's a very high bar.

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