The Democratic Republic of Congo has been facing a severe Ebola outbreak since last one year. The country’s largest-ever recorded Ebola outbreak, which has already killed more than 1,600 people since it began in August 2018.is still not under control.
As the epicenter of the outbreak first moved from the Mabalako health zone to the city of Beni and then Katwa, the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) has been mobilized on the ground since August 2018. The group has been witnessing a new peak of the outbreak in the previously affected area of Beni since May 2019.
ALIMA is an alliance of African doctors who are transforming humanitarian medicine and intensifying the fight against the epidemic by developing innovative strategies to treat patients and increase their chances of survival.
ALIMA currently operates two Ebola Treatment Centers (ETCs) in DRC that received a large number of confirmed cases. Since August last year, ALIMA has taken care of 5284 patients in all of its centers. Of the 569 patients confirmed to be infected by the Ebola virus, 277 were discharged as cured. In the last two weeks, the alliance of doctors has had to significantly increase its case management capacity in one of its two Ebola treatment centers. In Beni, more than 60 confirmed Ebola patients are currently hospitalized.
ALIMA has been able to treat infected patients by using CUBEs ( Emergency Room Biosecure for Epidemics ), an innovation designed to facilitate care for patients with highly contagious diseases such as Ebola.
All thanks to the CUBE units that caregivers and hygienists no longer have to systematically equip themselves with protective suits to protect themselves from the deadly virus while attending infected patients. These transparent individual units also humanize the hospitalization of patients by allowing them to stay in visual and auditory contact with their loved ones. In total, 24 CUBEs have been set up for one year.
ALIMA has also creating peripheral Transit Centers (pTCs) for suspected cases. It is now deploying an intervention on the outskirts of Katwa in small referral hospitals, to be as close as possible to the population.
“There, patients are seen in their familiar surroundings by doctors or nurses they already know, which greatly facilitates their care and referral to the Ebola Treatment Center if they are found to be infected by the virus,” said Claude Mahoudeau, ALIMA’s Emergency Coordinator for Ebola in DRC. “This evolution in the disease management strategy aims to restore confidence to patients and their families and hasten the end of this outbreak.”
ALIMA has also been working in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the National Biomedical Research Institute of the DRC, the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to evaluate promising therapeutic Ebola treatments. Since November 20, 2018, the group has been conducting a clinical trial, led by the National Institute of Biomedical Research, at the Ebola Treatment Centre in Beni to evaluate the safety and efficacy of these therapies. The conclusions of these tests should be available very soon.
“Combating the Ebola outbreak poses significant operational challenges, as it is taking place in an area of active conflict that has lasted for more than two decades, but these challenges can only be overcome if, and only if, all efforts converge at the international and national levels towards more inclusive and integrated actions at the community level,” said Dr. Richard Kojan, intensive care specialist and President of ALIMA. “Our struggle is to promote the union of multiple actors and communities, who are sometimes in opposition, but whose differences should be seen as a strength.”
