Global organisation battles Ebola in Guinea, DRC
The funding will be used as part of CDC’s coordinated response with local public health authorities to conduct contact tracing, active case finding and investigation of Ebola cases.
CAPE TOWN, March 23 (ANA) – A global nonprofit organisation, CDC Foundation, has provided support of US$500,000 for the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response to new Ebola outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
According to the CDC Foundation, this funding will be used as part of CDC’s coordinated response with local public health authorities to conduct contact tracing, active case finding and investigation of Ebola cases and support essential transportation, facility improvements and communications to aid in the response to end these outbreaks.
“Right now, it is critical to take steps to strengthen the responses in Guinea and DRC,” said Judy Monroe, MD, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation.
“From experience, we know how important it is to respond urgently to an outbreak, and we know the consequences when we do not.
“While this initial support will make an immediate difference, more support will be needed to aid Guinea and DRC and ensure the outbreaks do not spread to other nations in West Africa or other parts of the world.”
The Africa CDC last week said community resistance to health response efforts was a problem that plagued the previous Ebola crisis and has re-emerged as a top challenge in containing new outbreaks in the two countries.
Because of this, those who have come into contact with infected people have not all been traced and there is a high risk of regional spread, Merawi Aragaw, incident manager for Ebola in the DRC and Guinea at the Africa CDC, was quoted as saying by Devex, a social enterprise and media platform for the global development community.
The two outbreaks are still small, but anyone who has come into contact with these people should be monitored, Aragaw said during a press briefing on Thursday.
He said health workers have only been able to do so for about 86 percent of contacts in the DRC and about 96 percent in Guinea.
In Guinea, the CDC Foundation said it is assisting with an urgent and timely request to support Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire (ANSS), which is part of the ministry of health.
ANSS will use CDC Foundation-provided funds to help support contact tracing and field investigation activities, assist with specimen transport, logistics, transportation and fuel costs, and communications costs related to phones and data.
In DRC, the North Kivu province in the eastern part of the country is experiencing a resurgence of Ebola, and is one of the provinces most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The aim of the current and planned projects in North Kivu to be supported by CDC Foundation and donors is to build capacity for preventing, detecting and responding to events of public health importance and to ensure health authorities have the human resources, infrastructure, and materials needed to sustain these capacities going forward, the foundation said.
On February 7, the DRC’s health ministry said a new Ebola fatality had been confirmed in Butembo in North Kivu province. The dead woman was the 42-year-old wife of an Ebola survivor.
Guinea declared an Ebola outbreak in one of its regions on February 14, when seven people fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a burial in Goueke, near the Liberian border, according to international news broadcaster Al Jazeera.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Naomi Mackay
