By Kimberly Laney | Senior Philanthropy Specialist
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.
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