Source: Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International
- Despite a rapid and large outbreak response with new vaccines and treatments, the signs are that Ebola is not under control
- Since the beginning of the year, more than 40 per cent of new Ebola cases are people who died of Ebola in the communities
- Patients and communities must be treated as partners in the response; we must listen to their needs not preach to or coerce them
Seven months into the largest-ever Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Ebola response is failing to bring the epidemic under control in a climate of deepening community mistrust, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said at a press conference in Geneva today.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 40 per cent of new cases are people who died of Ebola in the communities. At the epicentre of the epidemic, in Katwa and Butembo in North Kivu province, 43 per cent of patients in the last three weeks were still being infected without known links to other cases.
“We have a striking contradiction: on the one hand a rapid and large outbreak response with new medical tools such as vaccines and treatments that show promising outcomes when people come early – and on the other hand, people with Ebola are dying in their communities, and do not trust the Ebola response enough to come forward,” said International President of MSF, Dr Joanne Liu.
35 per cent of newly infected people are not in a known chain of transmission, meaning we don’t know how they got it.
Last week, MSF suspended our Ebola activities in Katwa and Butembo, in North Kivu province, after successive attacks on the two treatment centres. While MSF does not…
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