On 23 April 2022, an Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak was declared in the town of Mbandaka, the capital of Equateur province. Médecins Sans Frontières rapidly sent a team to the area to assess the needs and support the authorities in their response.
The team deployed on the ground quickly saw the need to support the Ebola treatment centre (ETC) in Wangata, both in terms of patient flow and frontline staff training. In collaboration with the health authorities, we reorganized the triage and patient flow, strengthened measures to prevent infection, and reinforced case detection and medical management by the local team.
After nearly two weeks of support and rehabilitation, we handed over the facility to another medical organisation, allowing MSF teams to focus their support in the Bolenge health zone, South of Mbandaka, where we will support three health areas. In Wendji-Secli health centre, we set up a triage and an isolation room. In Bolenge health centre, apart from the triage, we built up an 8-bed Ebola treatment centre (6 beds for suspected cases and two for the confirmed ones). Our team also support training on infection prevention as well as case detection.