After the confirmation by the authorities of a case with the Ebola virus in Beni, the public authorities and organizations are organizing the response. According to the WHO, the vaccination campaign began this…

DRC: civil society in Beni takes part in the response to Ebola

Biosecure emergency rooms for epidemics, set up in the Ebola Treatment Center in Beni installed by the NGO Alima during a previous epidemic in 2018 (illustration image) RFI / Florence Morice

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After the confirmation by the authorities of a case with the Ebola virus in Beni, the public authorities and organizations are organizing the response.

According to the WHO, the vaccination campaign began this Thursday, August 25: 200 doses of vaccine are administered to healthcare personnel, then to some 160 contact cases of patient zero.

The authorities can count on the support of civil society to raise public awareness.

In the field, the region, which has already experienced the Ebola epidemic, is not at its first attempt.

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Omar Kavota, the coordinator of the support committee for the response to Ebola, was already at the front during the 2018 epidemic. When Ebola was raging in North Kivu.

And strong from his experience, he knows it: the population is much more prepared than at the time.

“

Unlike previous epidemics, there is no resistance against the response teams.
There is acceptance of the disease, unlike previous epidemics, where some and others thought that the Ebola epidemic did not exist, that it was a fabrication, that it was a political fact.

In close collaboration with the chief medical officer of the health zone, he and other civil society actors raise awareness among the population.

The goal, in the words of Omar Kavota, creates “

community momentum

”.

The inhabitants of Beni can take part in the response in many ways: "

Set up the handwashing system, accept vaccination as a preventive measure, as soon as there is a suspected case, that they report information at the nearest structures.

The vaccination campaign began this Thursday, August 25 with health personnel.

Then come the contact cases.

No other cases with the virus have been reported so far.

We would like to call on the population, especially cases formally identified as contact cases, to come forward for vaccination.

And even the others who would be linked in one way or another to these cases, and who are not yet formally identified, we call on them to adhere to this vaccination campaign so that we can limit the possible spread of this virus. .

Omar Kavota, vice-president of civil society in North Kivu and coordinator of the support committee for the response to Ebola

DRC: civil society in Beni takes part in the response to Ebola

DRC: civil society in Beni takes part in the response to Ebola

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