WE ARE RESPONDING TO AN EBOLA OUTBREAK IN EAST DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO.

IT IS THE FIRST EBOLA OUTBREAK TO OCCUR IN A CONFLICT ZONE

Obviously, everyone is frightened of Ebola. Especially given the security conditions in the North Kivu region.

KARIN HUSTER

MSF EMERGENCY COORDINATOR

KARIN HAS JUST RETURNED FROM THE OUTBREAK

There are parts of North Kivu that we can't reach and sometimes that really slows us down. 

OVER 100 ARMED GROUPS ARE THOUGHT TO BE ACTIVE IN NORTH KIVU,

MAKING AN ALREADY COMPLEX RESPONSE EVEN MORE CHALLENGING

So we have the case management component – that’s standard - but we also have the health promotion component, going into the communities, and the surveillance component. We need all these things in a comprehensive Ebola response package if we really want to get an epidemic or outbreak under control quickly. But in conditions like in North Kivu, it’s more difficult.

SINCE THE START OF THIS INTERVENTION, WE HAVE TREATED 69 EBOLA PATIENTS.

We arrived at the start of the epidemic. A lot of health workers from the Mangina referral health care centre were in quarantine with other patients. So we had to train people up who had never seen Ebola before in their lives, which meant working alongside them every day so they felt safe, and so they felt capable of going into the treatment centre without putting their own lives at risk to save others.

17 HEALTH WORKERS HAVE BEEN INFECTED WITH EBOLA SINCE THE START OF THE EPIDEMIC

We’ve got a lot of work to do on equipment - we need to donate equipment to all the health facilities in the region. And also on training, so that health workers have really sound knowledge of the disease and know how to protect themselves from it. This is clearly a priority and we need to do more work here.