New Delhi, July 2 -- Mourners stood at a distance as a small coffin was lowered into the grave. Health workers wearing masks and gloves joined a priest who prayed.

A 6-month-old girl was the latest victim of the Ebola outbreak sweeping through eastern Congo. She was the third child in her orphanage to die.

After a month reporting from the outbreak's epicenter with AP photographer Moses Sawasawa, this quiet scene has stayed with me the most.

From afar, the epidemic is often measured in numbers: over 1,300 confirmed cases, hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands of people who may have had contact with them.

The funeral is when we truly realized the gravity of the outbreak. Ebola does not distinguish between young and old, educated and une...