New leadership to address Ebola crisis
A news release from the World Health Organization (WHO) says the 10-month old Ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,200 lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to date and threatens to spread to neighboring countries. A third of the Ebola victims are children, says WHO, which is a higher proportion than in previous outbreaks.
Under the leadership of the government and Congolese communities, with support from the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the response has contained Ebola in parts of Ituri and North Kivu provinces. But WHO notes that ongoing insecurity and community mistrust in the response continue to hamper access to communities, disrupting WHO and the Ministry of Health to vaccinate communities and identify and treat afflicted individuals.
“The Ebola response is working in an operating environment of unprecedented complexity for a public health emergency - insecurity and political protests have led to periodic disruptions in our efforts to fight the disease. Therefore, an enhanced UN-wide response is required to overcome these operating constraints, and this includes moving senior leadership and operational decision making to the epicenter of the epidemic in Butembo. We have no time to lose,” said MONUSCO Deputy UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (DSRSG) David Gressly in the statement.
WHO says the UN and its partners are strengthening its political engagement and operational support to negotiate access to communities, increase support for humanitarian coordination, and bolster preparedness and readiness planning for Goma and surrounding countries. The organization is also adapting public health strategies to identify and treat people as quickly as possible, expand vaccination to reach and protect more people, and redouble its work to end transmission in health facilities.
WHO says Gressly has established a strengthened coordination and support in Butembo, the center of the outbreak will oversee the coordination of international support for the Ebola response and work to ensure that an enabling environment - particularly security and political - is in place to allow the Ebola response to be even more effective.
Gressly will work closely with WHO, which the organization says will continue to lead all health operations and technical support activities to the government response to the epidemic. Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, Assistant Director-General, Emergency Response, who has been in Butembo since late March, is leading the WHO response in DRC. WHO will also continue to coordinate public health interventions implemented by other UN partners.
Additional UN measures will bolster the work of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and agencies already on the ground, including UNICEF. Working with NGOs, UNICEF leads community engagement activities, provides psychosocial interventions, and helps prevent infection through water, sanitation and hygiene services.
WHO says financial planning and reporting will also be strengthened, and efforts will be accelerated to ensure sustainable and predictable funding required for the Ebola strategic response plan considering the ongoing needs.
