MSF Urges Collective Action Against Ebola Outbreak In DRC Amid WHO International Emergency

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity calls for immediate action of all the actors involved, including governments, in order to increase surveillance in regular health facilities and ease access to healthcare for all people across the disease-hit Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MSF Emergency Medical Manager for Ebola told Sputnik on Thursday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th July, 2019) The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity calls for immediate action of all the actors involved, including governments, in order to increase surveillance in regular health facilities and ease access to healthcare for all people across the disease-hit Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), MSF Emergency Medical Manager for Ebola told Sputnik on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo an international public health emergency.

"This declaration is a formal recognition of the level of emergency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Indeed, the situation in DRC remains critical. Almost one year into this Ebola epidemic in DRC, people are dying in communities and health workers are infected, with more than 1,600 Ebola-related deaths reported," MSF Emergency Medical Manager for Ebola Kate White said.

She stressed that it was important to take immediate action, such as strengthening surveillance to prevent infections occurring in regular health facilities, which requires a collective approach to tackling this second largest epidemics in history.

"The declaration outlines measures that need to be taken. For instance, measures to strengthen surveillance, or prevent infections occurring in regular health facilities.

The declaration must now lead to concrete and immediate actions to fight this epidemic. All involved in the response - humanitarian organizations, health actors, governmental bodies - need to fight this epidemic. Collective efforts are crucial," White said.

She also pointed out the need to cooperate with the Ebola-hit communities to effectively fight the outbreak of the disease.

"We must continue to build a trusting relationship with communities. Communities need to be at the center of the response - we must work with them. As MSF, we're doing so by being present in local health structures, where we're offering general health care services, to increase access to health care for all patients, but also implementing Ebola-related activities such as support to surveillance, triage, managing transit units and infection prevention and control activities," she added.

The DRC Health Ministry has recorded 2,501 confirmed and suspected Ebola infection cases since the outbreak began last summer. More than 1,600 of those patients died, while another 700 were successfully treated.

The most severe Ebola outbreak took place in West Africa in 2014-2015, resulting in the death of more than 11,000 people.