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On August 1, 2018, the Ministry of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declared that an outbreak of Ebola virus had occurred in North Kivu (North Kivu) provinces and Indonesia. # 39; Ituri. As of May 29, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 1,851 confirmed cases of Ebola and 1,208 confirmed deaths.
It is the second largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the world and the largest ever recorded in the DRC. The epidemic occurs in an area plagued by insecurity. Numerous armed groups engaged in regional ethnic struggles have caused mbad displacement, with more than one million displaced persons in North Kivu province alone. Several attacks have been launched against health facilities and workers, resulting in the looting and burning of clinics, as well as the kidnapping and killing of staff members. Violence against health workers and health facilities led to the suspension of Ebola control activities for a week in April.
Adding to danger, Ebola-affected provinces share borders with Rwanda and Uganda, with frequent cross-border movements for personal displacement and exchange, increasing the chances of spreading the virus beyond the DRC .
OUR ANSWER
IMA World Health works in the epicenter of the Ebola zone and coordinates its actions with local communities and organizations to prevent the spread of the virus in five of the most affected health zones of North Kivu provinces and Ituri, where nearly 1.2 million people live. The work, carried out in cooperation with the DRC Ministry of Health and the WHO Strategic Response Plan, is funded by the US Office for External Disaster Assistance (OFDA). The role of IMA is to support health facilities and community engagement activities in and around the cities of Beni and Butembo. Highlights of the IMA response to Ebola are:
- Implementation of community outreach and mobilization, which includes training and sensitization of community outreach workers and the general public on the signs and symptoms of Ebola, disease awareness, prevention and reduction stigma. We are also working with religious leaders to engage their respective congregations in the fight against Ebola and to strengthen community cooperation with Ebola teams.
- Research contacts in coordination with the WHO-supported contact team to monitor the spread of the virus and to quickly identify and isolate new cases.
- Renovation of front-line health facilities to isolate patients with Ebola symptoms and prevent the spread of infection to other patients or health workers in these facilities.
- Improve infection prevention and control practices in 50 at-risk health facilities by providing facilities and equipment for water, sanitation, hygiene and waste to prevent transmission of the virus into the community. installation, from patient to patient or from patient to health care provider. We also provide health facilities with personal protective products, such as soap, gloves, gowns, masks and eye protection, to protect workers in contact with the virus.
NEXT STEPS
IMA will continue to work closely with the OFDA, the WHO and the DRC government to combat the spread of the disease. In the coming months, IMA will expand its engagement with communities to build trust and social cohesion within communities and between communities and the response to epidemics. IMA is collaborating with other Ebola response partners to try to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus from Beni to Goma, a large regional city on the border with Rwanda, by mobilizing operations along the corridor separating the two cities.
If the Ebola virus begins to spread beyond the DRC's borders, Lutheran World Relief and IMA are gearing up for a quick response in Uganda. We have appointed an infectious disease counselor in Kampala, Uganda, to coordinate with the Ebola Task Force, led by the Ugandan Ministry of Health and WHO. We are working with the Protestant Medical Bureau of Uganda, a local faith-based NGO, to prepare health facilities located on the border between Uganda and the DRC to receive suspected Ebola patients. Through the same model of support for health facilities and workers we use in the DRC, we are strengthening the preparedness capacity and resilience of the health system in Uganda to cope with an eventual Ebola outbreak in their country .
Media contact
John Rivera
+1 443-604-2918
[email protected]
Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33299983
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