The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Misinformation and distrust are among the challenges facing public health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo as they confront the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak on record. Even though the virus has faded from U.S. headlines, key organizations are still at work providing medical care and training to counter the spread of the disease.
This story also ran on San Francisco Chronicle. It can be republished for free.
Since the World Health Organization’s May 17 declaration of a public health emergency, over 5,200 cases of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus have been confirmed and more than 2,500 people have died in Congo, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 550 people were in isolation with Ebola in Congo as of Aug. 7, the country’s National Public Health Institute said. Twenty cases and two deaths were reported in neighboring Uganda as well, but no new cases have been reported there since June 21, the World Health Organization said.
The worst Ebola outbreak in history, which hit several countries in West Africa from 2014 to 2016, claimed over 11,300 lives.
The current outbreak is only the third of the Bundibugyo strain in central Africa. Congo officials are reporting a 44% fatality rate for the rare strain, which does not yet have a vaccine. Military conflict in eastern Congo, where the outbreak is centered, has made the medical response more difficult.
“When everybody became aware of what was happening, we were already months behind where we should have been as a global community in stopping the spread of this disease,” said Erica Tavares, a senior director of the International Medical Corps.
The U.S. has pledged $512 million in direct aid in response to the outbreak and enacted a travel ban, temporarily preventing non-U.S. citizens traveling from the affected region from entering the country.
Meanwhile, public health workers in Congo continue to toil against Ebola.
Below, KFF Health News profiles five organizations involved in the ongoing public health work there. A fraction of the groups working in Congo, they’re a mix of smaller, local organizations and larger, internationally known groups.
1. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
Africa CDC is the African Union’s public health agency, in charge of helping health institutions in its member states with disease threat detection and response. With the WHO, Africa CDC announced a joint Ebola response plan on June 5. The organizations said they would need more than $500 million over the following six months for the effort.
Their primary goal is to strengthen cross-border communication and collaboration under a unified “One Response” plan. Africa CDC has released guidelines for travel and public gatherings, urging people to implement prevention methods including avoiding contact with bodily fluids instead of issuing blanket travel restrictions to affected areas.
2. Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research