Médecins Sans Frontières - WEBCLIP - Ebola outbreak in DRC's Equateur province ENG

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF333781

Date taken / Date Recorded 04/09/2020 12:00 AM

Country Democratic Republic of Congo

Commissioning section MSF-UNITED STATES

Photographer / videographer / producer Franck Ngonga

Copyright Franck Ngonga/MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications

Formal Consent Copy available no

Editor's rating ★★★★★ (C)

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

Duration 2m23s

Maximum Size 1920px × 1080px 342.86 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist On 1 June, a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease was declared in DRC’s Équateur province.

MSF quickly sent our teams to curb the spread of the disease and provide treatment in hard-to-reach health areas.

Notably in Bolomba health zone.

Dr Maria Mashako, MSF medical coordinator
This zone was given priority mainly because it had never experienced an Ebola epidemic before.
We are involved in different pillars of the response, notably case surveillance.
We collaborate with local health zone teams for case investigation
and community-based surveillance.
We are engaged in community dialogue to explain the treatment centre,
explain the relevance of isolation and discuss with the affected communities
about the best ways to control the outbreak together.

Gaspar Tabu, health promoter
Health promoters explain health issues to people.
In this case, they visit each house to identify potential cases.
They explain the Ebola virus disease, how it spreads and how to avoid it.
In case of an alert, they immediately inform the surveillance teams.

To treat patients, MSF supports several small treatment and isolation centres
in the health zones of Bolomba, Bikoro, Manieka, Lotumbe and Ingende.

We focus on suspect and confirmed cases.
This allows a rapid information on alerts.

MSF provides care in hard-to-reach areas and supports local health facilities.

To facilitate the flow of alerts into local health centres,
MSF supports local health facilities that are on the way to the affected areas
by providing kits with essential medicines for basic health care,
and by reinforcing infection prevention and control measures.