INTERVIEW: MSF response to Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DRC (INT)

The epidemic is far from being under control. All of the priorities in the response plan are being implemented by MSF teams together with the Ministry of Health.

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INTERVIEW: Ebola epidemic in North Kivu, DRC (28 August)

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INTERVIEW: MSF response to Ebola outbreak in North Kivu, DRC (ENG)

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Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF242437

Date taken / Date Recorded 28/08/2018 12:00 AM

Country Democratic Republic of Congo

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Usage Rights (MSF) External Media, MSF Fundraising, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★ (E)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 2m40s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 266.78 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist The epidemic is far from being under control. All of the priorities in the response plan are being implemented by MSF teams together with the Ministry of Health.
What worries us is that we’re working in an area of conflict where population movement is high.

Gwenola Seroux, head of emergency operations, MSF
INTERVIEW

I’m just back from North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Since August 1st, 111 cases have been confirmed, including 75 deaths, making it one of the largest Ebola epidemics since the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2014.

At the beginning of the outbreak, it was difficult to find experienced staff to be able to reinforce our regular teams who had no experience of working during an Ebola outbreak.

The Mangina Health Centre where we operate was the first to be infected
so the centre’s healthcare workers were, and still are, our patients.
So, we had to wait for the Ministry of Health to send new doctors and nurses to provide care.

North Kivu province, where we have been working for more than 10 years through our regular projects, has been unstable for many years. Different armed groups regularly cause clashes leading to rapid population displacements. This is the tenth Ebola outbreak in DRC but it is the first Ebola outbreak in an area of conflict.

The challenges for MSF, particularly at the beginning of an epidemic, is to eliminate the risk of contamination in health centres where cases have occurred. This means we have to make them functional again by carrying out the full decontamination process. Health care workers also have to be trained to provide care to patients who are not necessarily infected with Ebola in good conditions and without risk of contamination. The second challenge is the care we provide to Ebola patients in Ebola treatment centres. In the beginning, we were surprised by the number of cases. Initially, we had planned 30 beds in the treatment centre, we now have 68 beds. The challenge now is to improve the quality of care and to be able to provide much more individualised care in these conditions.

Keywords

Democratic Republic of Congo

Ebola