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WHO / EASTERN DRC END EBOLA OUTBREAK
STORY: WHO / EASTERN DRC EBOLA END EBOLA OUTBREAK
TRT: 02:44
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / MAY - JULY 2019, FEBRUARY 2020, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
JULY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
1. Various shots, isolation room
25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"Today is a joyous occasion. I am delighted to celebrate the end of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo."
MAY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
3. Various shots, vaccination centre
25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"The Ebola outbreak added to the burden of communities that have endured years of conflict. But during this time, the immense response was rolled out, led by the government and brave and talented Congolese responders and colleagues from many partners, who joined forces to save lives and protect health."
MAY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
5. Various shots, vaccination centre
25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"The Ebola response was a victory for science. The rapid rollout of a highly effective vaccine saved lives and slowed the spread of Ebola. For the first time, the world now has a licensed Ebola vaccine. And effective treatments were identified that dramatically lower death rates when patients are treated early."
MAY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
7. Various shots, vaccination centre
25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"While we celebrate the outbreak’s end, we must resist complacency. In addition to COVID-19, the world’s largest measles outbreak has wrought havoc in DRC, killing thousands of people."
MAY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
9. Close up, patient’s temperature being checked
25 JUNE 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"And as we have seen with Ebola’s emergence in Equateur province, viruses do not take breaks. There is still the potential for flare-ups, and rapid response teams and support systems must remain in place."
JULY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
11. Wide shot, WHO workers with the community
FEBRUARY 2020, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Marie-Roseline Belizaire, Field Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We work with the community to build the global healthcare system. We didn’t work only on Ebola, because when we train people, when we make a construction of an isolation room in the community, it is not only for Ebola, we contribute to have a better health system in this community. So, this is a great satisfaction of a job that has been too long, but very well done.”
JULY 2019, BENI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO (DRC)
13. Med shot, WHO workers with the community
After nearly two years and 2,280 deaths, the world’s second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is finally over, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today (25 Jun).
It is the end of the 10th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"Today is a joyous occasion. I am delighted to celebrate the end of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo."
The outbreak, declared in North Kivu on 1 August 2018, was the second largest in the world, and was particularly challenging as it took place an active conflict zone. There were 3,470 cases, 2,287 deaths and 1,171 survivors.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"The Ebola outbreak added to the burden of communities that have endured years of conflict. But during this time, the immense response was rolled out, led by the government and brave and talented Congolese responders and colleagues from many partners, who joined forces to save lives and protect health."
Led by the DRC Government and the Ministry of Health and supported by WHO and partners, the more than 22-month-long response involved training thousands of health workers, registering 250,000 contacts, testing 220 000 samples, providing patients with equitable access to advanced therapeutics, vaccinating over 303 000 people with the highly effective rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine, and offering care for all survivors after their recovery.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"The Ebola response was a victory for science. The rapid rollout of a highly effective vaccine saved lives and slowed the spread of Ebola. For the first time, the world now has a licensed Ebola vaccine. And effective treatments were identified that dramatically lower death rates when patients are treated early."
As countries around the world face the COVID-19 pandemic, the DRC Ebola response provides valuable lessons. Many of the public health measures that have been successful in stopping Ebola are the same measures that are now essential for stopping COVID-19: finding, isolating, testing, and caring for every case and relentless contact tracing.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"While we celebrate the outbreak’s end, we must resist complacency. In addition to COVID-19, the world’s largest measles outbreak has wrought havoc in DRC, killing thousands of people."
WHO stressed the need for vigilance. Continuing to support survivors and maintaining strong surveillance and response systems in order to contain potential flare-ups is critical in the months to come.
On 1 June 2020, seven cases of Ebola were reported in Mbandaka city and neighbouring Bikoro Health Zone in Equateur Province and an 11th outbreak was declared. WHO is supporting the government-led response with more than 50 staff already deployed and more than 5,000 vaccinations already administered.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
"And as we have seen with Ebola’s emergence in Equateur province, viruses do not take breaks. There is still the potential for flare-ups, and rapid response teams and support systems must remain in place."
The response was bolstered by the engagement and leadership of the affected communities, preventing the outbreak from spreading globally. More than 16,000 local frontline responders worked alongside the more than 1500 people deployed by WHO.
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Marie-Roseline Belizaire, Field Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We work with the community to build the global healthcare system. We didn’t work only on Ebola, because when we train people, when we make a construction of an isolation room in the community, it is not only for Ebola, we contribute to have a better health system in this community. So, this is a great satisfaction of a job that has been too long, but very well done.”
In DRC, community workers were provided with training and a smartphone data collection app that enabled them to track contacts and report in real time rather than fill in laborious paper reports. Even when violence locked down cities, the community workers, many of them local women, continued to track and trace contacts using the application, something that was crucial for ending this outbreak.
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