A Year Responding to the Second-Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History
International Medical Corps has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the start of the outbreak — and will be until the virus is contained.
On August 1st, 2018, the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) government confirmed a cluster of cases of the Ebola virus in North Kivu province. Nearly one year later on July 30, the virus has claimed the lives of more than 1,780 people and been confirmed present in 2,577 more.
The outbreak — now the second-largest ever — was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization on July 17th: A decision we welcome in anticipation of increased media coverage, awareness and funding in response to the outbreak.
As of today, we’ve constructed nearly 50 screening-and-referral units, helped perform more than 1 million screenings for symptoms of the virus at health facilities, and conducted Ebola awareness and engagement sessions with more than 63,000 community members. We’re also providing health centers with access to clean water and building waste management systems to ensure the proper destruction of Ebola-related healthcare materials.
We continue to focus on providing local health workers with the tools and knowledge needed to fight the outbreak, training more than 1,323 health workers in infection prevention and control. These newly trained health workers are working across health facilities in addition to our near 100 strong Ebola Response Team in the DRC to further strengthen the response effort and provide care to those suffering at the hands of the virus.
Despite the sheer scale of the figures above it is our Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) in Mangina where our most recognizable work has been carried out: helping cure patients of Ebola. The ETC’s has helped cure more than 134 patients, a massive achievement only made possible thanks to the dedicated work of our Ebola response experts, your support and the generous support of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Every cured patient is a life saved, it is proof that Ebola can be beaten and that together, we will stop the virus again as we did in the 2014 West Africa epidemic.
Despite the enormity of the challenge facing communities ravaged by Ebola, there have been times of elation where health workers and community members alike have celebrated a patient’s release from our ETC — moments of joy, moments of relief. Take a look below at some of our favorites ↓
We got off to a great start in 2019, with the news of our first cured patient being discharged from the ETC!
In late January we were thrilled to see Ezechiel, Sylvie and Solange leaving our ETC!
On June 6th, our team took some awesome footage featuring a five-year-old boy who had been cured of Ebola!
On June 27th, we celebrated Kambale and Sasita leaving our ETC!
We had a great start in July, with seven more cured people leaving the ETC!
And quickly crossed the 100 cured patients mark with the release of five more cured patients!
July got even better when we got word that eight more patients had been cured — including baby Viviane!
In mid-July, we received this beautiful picture from our team of a 5-month-old baby being held by one of another seven people leaving the ETC Ebola-free!
Without your support — none of these incredible moments would have been possible.
As the DRC enters the second year of this deadly outbreak, it’s imperative that we continue to work together to do all we can to stop this virus in its tracks. Despite an immeasurably tough past year on all those affected by the outbreak, we remain confident that with your support — we will once again overcome Ebola.
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