Emergency Response to the Ebola Outbreak in DRC

As of September 24, the Ministry of Health had reported over 150 confirmed and probable cases of Ebola —and 100 deaths — across North Kivu and Ituri provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The areas of Beni, Butembo, Mabalako in North Kivu, and of Mandima in Ituri, are among those most affected.

A new case in Ituri Province is a cause for particular concern, as the patient was a contact of a confirmed Ebola case but declined medical follow-up and vaccination, and fled, ultimately passing. The high movement raises fear for continuous spread of Ebola.

Exacerbating efforts, the ongoing conflict and increasingly dangerous security incidents within the Ebola-affected area are severely limiting the movement of aid organizations and health officials working to contain the outbreak. On Saturday, September 22, at least 21 people were killed in an attack in the town of Beni, where most of the humanitarian agencies are based.

Dr. Peter Salama, the World Health Organization emergency response chief, recently stated that, “We are now extremely concerned that several factors may be coming together over the next weeks to months to create a potential perfect storm. A perfect storm of active conflict, limiting our ability to access civilians, distress by segments of the community, already traumatized by decades of conflict and of murder.”

Despite these challenges, our teams are working to help contain the virus as quickly as possible. Co-managed by the Ministry of Health, we have opened a 20-bed Ebola Treatment Center in Makeke, in Ituri province – about a one-hour drive from Beni.

To strengthen infection prevention and control measures, we have trained 215 doctors, nurses, and hygienists at health centers, hospitals, and health posts in Ebola-affected areas. In North Kivu, teams have now screened more than 29,000 individuals across four screening-and-referral units (SRUs) located at health facilities. These SRUs provide the infrastructure needed to safely screen every patient, visitor, and staff member with no-touch temperature checks and rapid assessments for Ebola-like symptoms each time they enter the health facility.

Moving forward, we will continue to expand prevention activities to help stop the transmission of this terrible disease, including constructing up to nine additional SRUs at health centers in Beni, Buhumbani, and Mabalako.

We thank you and the GlobalGiving community for your continued support across the response.

International Medical Corps is ramping up efforts to respond to the rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak in northeast DRC. On Monday, August 20, the Ministry of Health reported a total of 96 cases of hemorrhagic fever in North Kivu and Ituri provinces, including 69 confirmed as Ebola and 27 as probable, and 55 deaths. Declared only at the start of August, reports are stating that this is already the ninth-largest outbreak recorded.

Our Emergency Response Team is on the ground and has supported efforts at Beni General Hospital, a major site for Ebola screening and referrals in North Kivu. As of Monday, we had visited five health facilities to distribute urgently needed sanitation materials, and we plan to set up screening and referral units at other priority health facilities. At these units, we will provide staff with the training, supplies and other resources needed to safely screen every patient, visitor and staff member with no-touch temperature checks and rapid assessments for Ebola-like symptoms each time they enter the health site.

The disease is already striking healthcare workers, with 12 cases confirmed as of August 20, and more suspected, so we need to work fast. International Medical Corps has delivered our first 300 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE)—including coveralls, hoods, aprons, goggles, gloves and gumboots—to the Ministry of Health in Beni, and we are planning to provide additional PPE to protect the extremely vulnerable healthcare staff.

In an interview on NPR’s Weekend Edition, Dr. Joseph Fair, our Team Lead for the Ebola outbreak in northeast DRC, states, “…healthcare workers, nurses and hygienists or cleaners are always the frontline of an epidemic, especially with Ebola. So it's not uncommon that healthcare workers are the ones that do suffer the most in the beginning, at least. And if they can't protect themselves, they can't help the patients, so that's why we focus very heavily on them.” Listen to the full interview at https://www.npr.org/2018/08/19/639997929/congo-faces-another-ebola-outbreak.

It remains critical to prepare for the potential spread of this disease, as occurred in 2014 in West Africa, especially given the difficult and dangerous environment in this region of the DRC. Alongside preparedness efforts in Uganda and Rwanda, the World Health Organization has prioritized the neighboring countries of Burundi and South Sudan. International Medical Corps remains ready to support these efforts.

We thank the GlobalGiving community for your support as we scale our response to the Ebola outbreak in northeast DRC.