Q&A: Conflict, resistance hampering WHO’s Ebola efforts in DRC
WHO’s Africa director talks about the Ebola crisis and the resistance met while trying to tackle the outbreak in DRC.
by Faras Ghani
Aljazeera.com
12/2/2018
The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is now the second largest in history, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), with at least 426 confirmed cases in the country.
The outbreak, declared on August 1, has led to at least 198 confirmed deaths, DR Congo’s health ministry said.
It is the tenth time in DR Congo since Ebola was first detected there in 1976 and centres around the restive eastern city of Beni in North Kivu, a region which has been blighted by armed conflict, which has hampered efforts to curb the outbreak.
Al Jazeera spoke to Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director of WHO Africa, about the spread of the outbreak, lessons learned from the earlier outbreaks, and what the future holds for health issues in Africa.
Al Jazeera: DRC’s health minister called it the “worst outbreak” in the country’s history. How difficult is it for the WHO to tackle it?
Matshidiso Moeti: This is happening in a zone where there’s long-standing conflict. There is also a mistrust and the level of acceptance from the population has been a particular problem. Even as we’re there, there have been attacks on communities, kidnappings, threats to our staff and even attacks.
We’ve been keen to work at community level, with various community groups, hoping to spread the word to everyone, including the armed groups. We want to tell them that when there’s an Ebola outbreak, and the virus is circulating, we’re all at risk, including them.
This is a combination of security issues and mistrust by the population, and even reluctance to cooperate sometimes. There are areas under the radar where the standard of infection control is very poor, they are some of the main areas where transmission is occurring and that has made the situation difficult and complicated.
This is a work in progress.
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