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Photo: UNICEF / Mark Naftalin
Health workers prepare to care for Ebola patients at Bikoro Hospital (photo archive).
By Seipati Moloi
After a two-month emergency response in Equator Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams started transfer their Ebola control activities to the Congolese Ministry of Health. "This Ebola outbreak is not yet officially over, but we are very pleased with the progress made," said Henry Gray, Emergency Relief Coordinator for MSF in the province of Columbia. ; Ecuador. "Given the low case volume and the growing expertise of local staff, the Ministry of Health is well placed to complete the work we started together."
Throughout the epidemic, officially declared on May 8, the Congolese Ministry of Health MSF-supported health teams in Bikoro, Itipo, Mbandaka and Iboko treated 38 confirmed patients, 24 of whom survived and returned home. Sadly 14 are dead. More than 120 other patients with Ebola symptoms were isolated and tested before being allowed to return home after a negative test.
The transfer process began with the closure of the MSF Ebola Transit Center at the Itipo General Reference Hospital. June 20th. All new suspicious patients are now being treated at the nearby ALIMA-managed Ebola Treatment Center, which also carries out awareness-raising and surveillance activities in the affected areas and will help the Ministry of Health to manage a clinic for Ebola survivors. [19659008] MSF then transferred the Ebola Treatment Center to the Bikoro Reference General Hospital on June 25 to the Ministry of Health staff who continue to isolate and test suspected people of their condition. be infected with the Ebola virus. All awareness, health promotion, disinfection and burial activities in Bikoro have also been badigned to the Ministry of Health and other non-governmental organizations.
An MSF team is building a small isolation unit in Mbandaka. Reference Hospital. Once completed, any new suspicious patient will be isolated and tested for the virus in this new facility. The 40-bed Ebola treatment center built by MSF on the outskirts of Mbandaka will be disinfected and dismantled in early July
The Ebola treatment center at the Iboko Reference General Hospital will be the last MSF-supported facility to be entrusted at the Ministry of Health on July 15th. In the meantime, MSF will continue its surveillance and awareness activities and support the hospital with pediatric care and infection prevention and control in the facility.
Finally, as no new cases of Ebola have been reported since June 6, MSF teams, alongside teams from the World Health Organization (WHO), completed the "ring vaccination" of all contacts of Ebola-confirmed patients, as well as contacts of their contacts with the experimental Ebola vaccine rVSVDG-ZEBOV-GP. Similarly, MSF vaccination of front-line workers in the Bikoro and Iboko health zones was completed on 23 June. There are no new confirmed cases of Ebola, the 21-day follow-up of the latest front-line workers vaccinated by MSF, and in turn MSF's vaccination activities in the province. of Equator, will be completed on July 14th.
that there has been a mbadive international response to this Ebola outbreak, but Congolese are far more likely to be affected by malaria, measles, cholera or related displacement to violence that the Ebola virus, "said Gray." In addition to the medical activities that MSF already manages with the DRC Ministry of Health, MSF is now responding to a new cholera outbreak in Mbuji Maji (Kasai Oriental Province). and badesses how best to respond to the consequences of recent violence in Tshikula (Central Kasai Province). "
There are no more confirmed cases of Ebola, l & # 39; epidemic will be officially declared by the Congolese health authorities on 22 July.
Normally, outbreaks of Ebola are considered after 42 days have elapsed without new infections since the last case was declared negative (after the disease cured) or when the last known infected person was buried in case of succumbing to the Ebola virus. The 42-day period corresponds to twice the maximum incubation period of the virus (21 days). The Congolese Ministry of Health decided to add one more day, bringing it to 43 days
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