Chair
Wendy Fenton @WendyFenton1 – Coordinator of the Humanitarian Practice Network, ODI
Speakers
Linda Mobula @LindaMobula – Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins and Research Associate, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
Theresa Jones @Theresa_E_Jones – Clinical Psychologist and Senior Research Associate, Anthrologicacov
Bernard Balibuna – Country Representative, CAFOD, DRC
Natalie Roberts @docnat – Director of Studies, MSF-CRASH (Médecins Sans Frontières, Centre de réflexion sur l’action et les savoirs humanitaires)
The world’s second largest outbreak of Ebola was declared on 1 August 2018 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 2,200 people have died and over 3,300 have been infected. The response to Ebola has been complicated by conflict between central government, local political actors and armed groups in the affected areas. Rumours about the virus and the response have also been spread and shaped by that conflict.
Attempts have been made to apply key lessons from the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, such as the need for strong surveillance and outbreak control strategies and the importance of understanding the behaviours, practices and perceptions of communities and of engaging them actively in the response. The identification and trial use of effective vaccines during the outbreak has been an important and promising development. Yet, despite these efforts, cases of Ebola continue to be reported.
Drawing on articles from the Humanitarian Exchange, this webinar will discuss to what degree the lessons learned from the West Africa Ebola outbreak have been taken into account in the DRC response and how barriers to containment of the disease could be better addressed.
https://www.odi.org/events/16704-responding-ebola-drc
La communication des risques et l’engagement de la communauté sont essentiels à toute intervention en cas d’épidémie. Cela est particulièrement critique en cas d’épidémie d’Ebola, ce qui peut susciter la crainte chez le public et les intervenants de première ligne en raison de la présentation sévère des symptômes, de l’incompréhension des causes de la maladie et du taux de mortalité élevé. Ce document décrit Réponse de l’engagement communautaire à l’épidémie d’Ebola en République démocratique du Congo.
Risk communication and community engagement are essential for any disease outbreak response. This is particularly critical during outbreaks of Ebola which may create fear in the public and frontline responders alike due to the severe presentation of symptoms, misunderstanding of the causes of illness and high fatality rates.