The Democratic Republic of the Congo is facing its 17th outbreak of the Ebola virus disease, with the Bundibugyo strain currently affecting the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. To support the government’s outbreak response, VillageReach, in collaboration with Direct Relief, provided the Emergency Operation Committee (EoC) and the General Hospital of Bunia with personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline health workers and medicines for the care of people infected by the viral disease in areas affected by the outbreak, particularly Ituri province.
This allocation includes gloves, masks, protective glasses, and other essential equipment and medicines to enable health professionals to carry out their work safely. The equipment will help reduce the risk of infection among health workers and community relays, who play a crucial role in early case detection, patient management, active case finding and outreach.
Through this support, a first batch of more than 263,000 PPEs—four tons in weight— will be made available for the response. Further shipments are arriving in the coming days.
“The protection of health care workers is at the heart of an effective outbreak response. By making this equipment available to them, we are helping to strengthen their security and ability to serve communities in the affected areas. We are grateful to our partner Direct Relief for their swift and significant mobilization of PPE and medicines to the country,” said Freddy Nkosi, DRC Country Director, VillageReach.
Photo Credit: Kambale Molo Alex
Welcoming this initiative, the Deputy Incident Manager of the response, Dr. Richard Kitenge from the INSP’s Emergency Operation Committee, underlines the need for this support: “It has always been a joy for us to see that the gaps that are presented are being filled by one partner or another. […] For us, it is a feeling of satisfaction, and we say thank you to the colleagues of VillageReach who are locally here and to their managers, who are outside Bunia, who have been involved in ensuring that these equipments arrive and that it reaches us in very good condition. The fact that there are medicines, the fact that there are IPC equipments, these are primary needs. […] Any donation that meets our request must help the population because today we are talking about contamination and therefore IPC inputs will break the chain [of transmission] […], it will contribute to the improvement of care, so it will directly impact and help the population.”
In addition to providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and medicine, VillageReach:
- Contributes to the strengthening of epidemiological surveillance through the transport of samples to the analysis laboratories (INRB) at the provincial level to facilitate the rapid confirmation of cases for prompt action;
- Plans to train nearly 1,000 community-based surveillance community relays to strengthen active community-based search for the identification of contacts and suspected cases; as well as community engagement in 8 health zones in Ituri province;
- Provides technical assistance to various response coordination commissions.
“Our priority is to support a rapid, coordinated and community-centred response. By strengthening surveillance, prevention and community engagement, we are helping to break chains of transmission and protect the most vulnerable populations. In close collaboration with the response coordination, we will ensure the availability of these inputs not only for the response, but also for the continuity of other essential services in the province,” added Freddy Nkosi.
There is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment for the Bundibugyo strain, making prevention measures even more essential.
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About VillageReach
VillageReach transforms healthcare delivery to reach everyone. We are guided by the vision of a world where every person has the health care they need to thrive. VillageReach works with governments, the private sector, partners, and communities to build responsive primary health care systems that make health products and services available to the most disadvantaged people.
As a local, globally connected organization operating across Africa and the United States, VillageReach’s main goal is to reduce inequalities in access to quality primary health care within health systems, to reach 350 million people by 2030. Present in the DRC since 2015, VillageReach’s areas of support to the government include: service delivery; health information systems, including digitalization; health workforce development; improving access to health products; emergencies and health system resilience.
About Direct Relief
Direct Relief is an international humanitarian organization that provides essential medical assistance and resources to health workers and populations affected by disasters, health emergencies and humanitarian crises around the world.
For more information: https://www.villagereach.org/where-we-work/drc/
Press contact: media@villagereach.org and/or communications@villagereach.org