The Ebola outbreak that began in West Africa in 2014 was unprecedented. Between January 2014 and January 2016, 28,616 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, including 11,310 deaths, were reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak devastated affected populations and caused considerable disruption across the region. As of 26 December 2019, in the onging… Read more »
Country: Democratic Republic of The Congo
NGO readiness for Ebola: a practical roadmap
The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), declared on 1 August 2018, is the secondlargest in history. The DRC shares its borders with nine countries, all of which are at high risk for an Ebola outbreak given the regular cross-border movement of people, goods and services in the region. NGOs are increasingly… Read more »
Sexual and reproductive health in Ebola response: a neglected priority
As of March 2020, the Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had claimed more than 2,200 lives. Women and girls make up 56% of the almost 3,500 confirmed cases. Stopping transmission of the virus has been the primary focus for the Ministry of Health and responding agencies,… Read more »
Community engagement: the key to successful Ebola research
Community engagement is a process of developing relationships that enable stakeholders to work together to address healthrelated issues and promote well-being. Ideally, it should draw on locally contextualised meanings derived from experiences and lessons learnt during the implementation of community engagement activities. These activities include informationsharing with stakeholders and getting feedback, deliberate steps to close… Read more »
What do adaptations tell us about the production of trust? Shifting the ‘burden of change’ from people to the response
This article, based on our research project on ‘Humanizing the design of the Ebola response in Eastern DRC’, examines the role of adaptation in the production of trust. The project has been chiefly concerned with exploring how humanely designed care and treatment for Ebola contribute to the formation of trust. In past epidemics, the need… Read more »
Replacing the language of fear: language and communication in DRC’s latest Ebola response
We know that effective communication with communities at risk is essential to containing disease outbreaks. Yet people in the latest Ebola response in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) can’t always access the information they need. Even if they can access it, they can’t always understand it. And even if they understand it, they don’t… Read more »
Grief and memorialisation: making meaning with Ebola-affected families
In order to prevent the spread of Ebola through the handling of dead bodies, burials are carried out by special teams who are trained to do this in a safe and dignified manner. This should be standard practice by response teams, and has been implemented in the North Kivu outbreak. A medically safe burial involves… Read more »
Lessons not learnt? Faith leaders and faith-based organisations in the DRC Ebola response
The response team did not understand how we live here. They arrived in villages in biohazard suits, looking like members of armed groups and frightening the population. Without explanation, they would demand to take the patient away…The team did not build a dialogue, taking into account local cultural values. In Butembo, the rumours were that… Read more »
Community first: the key to stopping the Ebola epidemic
The tenth Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was declared in August 2018. Nineteen months later, it has resulted in over 3,400 confirmed and probable cases and more than 2,200 deaths. By October 2019, the head of the Ebola response, Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, and the Congolese government in Kinshasa were predicting that… Read more »