Médecins Sans Frontières - INTERVIEW: Ebola. Thomas Compigne, Watsan, DRC (ENG)

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF257830

Date taken / Date Recorded 15/12/2018 12:00 AM

Country Democratic Republic of Congo

Commissioning section MSF-FRANCE

Photographer / videographer / producer Gabriele François Casini

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

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

Duration 3m6s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 307.80 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist BENI
Democratic Republic of Congo

What’s important in our job is trying to contain the outbreak when somebody who is confirmed as having Ebola has been to a health centre.

Thomas Compigne
water and sanitation specialist, MSF

Somebody confirmed as having Ebola who visited a health centre might have contaminated the room they’ve been in—the bed, any objects, bedding or the curtains. Our task is to decontaminate these places to ensure the next patient who goes into the same room won’t contract Ebola.

Decontamination
Is one of the pillars
of the Ebola response

First we send a health promoter to meet the director of the centre where a case has been confirmed to try and retrace the patient’s movements. We also explain why it’s important to decontaminate the centre as quickly as possible, how we’ll go about it and that we won’t disrupt their work. At the same time we organise health promotion activities in the area to gain the acceptance of the local community and facilitate the work of the decontamination team. The Health Promoter then contacts my teams who go to the site and start the decontamination of the health centre. They also work with the director to retrace the patient’s movements.

A contaminated health centre
can contribute to spreading the virus
and reduces access to medical care
for everyone in the area

Sometimes a patient who goes to a health centre might visit a second and even a third centre, so we can have several centres to decontaminate. In other words, the size of the job can vary a lot and depending on how many centres have been concerned, decontamination can vary from two hours to four and sometimes five.

At the end of the decontamination, we have to dispose of and incinerate various kinds of waste—mainly the yellow protective suits, head covers, masks, latex gloves and so on worn by the decontamination team. Sometimes there’s more waste to incinerate.

It is absolutely essential
to explain to the community
the importance of decontaminating

When we arrive to decontaminate a health centre we occasionally encounter some resistance. I myself have seen it happen, but only once, and that was because somebody died while we were decontaminating. Infection Control and Prevention usually requires the health promoter stepping in prior to decontamination, which is carried out in places where MSF is providing assistance. This means that the community is already aware of MSF’s role in decontamination and there’s a good level of acceptance of what we are doing in the health centres.

In northeast DRC
MSF runs two Ebola treatment centres
and two transit centres