[ad_1]
The photo of the file shows students lining up to wash their hands with chlorinated water to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus at St. John Kamasasa Elementary School in Kasese District. Western Uganda, June 18, 2019. The Ugandan Ministry of Health recorded three confirmed cases of Ebola one week after the spread of the deadly disease on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Xinhua / Nicholas Kajoba)
ADDIS ABABAJuly 21st (Xinhua) – The African Union (AU) has announced that it will deploy more Health care experts to respond to the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The virus caused 1,621 the dead in the DRC since July 17 in an epidemic that is the second largest in the history of Ebola since its discovery in 1976.
"The AU will reactivate the African Voluntary Health Corps (AVoHC) and deploy them not only in the DRC but also in other countries in the region, "said John in a statement from the AU. Nkengasong, Director of From the AU African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC in Africa), said Saturday.
According to 55 members Pan-African block, the decision to increase the number of volunteers is a response to the World Health Organization (WHO) statement, calling the epidemic an emergency outbreak of public health of international concern (PHEIC).
"It is a statement that is issued when an event is extraordinary, serious and likely to exceed the country where it is located and to have a regional or international effect from the point of view of This is an important statement as it modifies the CDC Africa will help the Democratic Republic of Congo cope with this epidemic ", said Nkengasong.
Africa CDC, which supported response efforts in the sector DRC since August 2018, is currently operating with 41 field experts, some of whom AVoHC members.
The AU, which had previously deployed the AVoHC in West Africa to deal with the 2014-2015 epidemic, said that the AVoHC "will also be very helpful in the current outbreak."
The AU, noting that insecurity and attacks on health centers and health care providers posed a major challenge for the response efforts in the affected provinces, also revealed that she "will engage with the United Nations security system to enhance the security of deployed experts and efforts can continue uninterrupted."
"We will work with the government of DRC very closely to better coordinate our efforts with other partners like the WHO, " Nkengasong I said.
Other plans to strengthen the response include the purchase and supply of additional equipment and supplies, capacity building border monitoring and laboratory systems, and a new approach to risk communication and sensitization at the community level this has been noted.
African Voluntary Health Corps is a team of 800 epidemiologists, anthropologists, as well as communication specialists, laboratories and logistics, from various African countries, who are waiting for an emergency deployment.
According to the AU, the majority of AVoHC members have been "trained and are ready to be deployed anywhere on the continent".
CDC Africa, as part of its interventions in the field of DRC The Ebola outbreak has deployed some 41 field experts to the response and trained more than 800 health workers and volunteers in the community.
African CDC response interventions also include support to the Government of DRC with 3000 laboratory cartridges for the detection of Ebola, establishing six laboratories fully badisted and managed by Africa CDC staff, the training of some 469 Health care workers, traditional healers and teachers in infection prevention and control, it was noted.
Source link
