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Heroes of the
Ebola response

Featuring some of the heroes behind the work to end the epidemic that claimed 2287 lives

Heroes of the Ebola response

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC)10th Ebola outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces is coming to an end on 25 June 2020 if no new cases are detected. Huge efforts have been made to reach this milestone almost two years after the first cases in the area were reported on 1 August 2018. A wide range of responders: the DRC health authorities, World Health Organization (WHO), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Red Cross movement and other international and local partners, donors, researchers and communities have worked hard to end the Ebola outbreak. Despite facing security challenges, emergency response teams fanned out into towns and villages across Ituri and North Kivu, setting up treatment centres, tracing contacts, vaccinating people, ferrying medicines and supplies and persuading communities to join the Ebola fight.

We feature some of the heroes behind the work to end the epidemic that claimed 2287 lives, with 3470 cases registered, making it the second-deadliest after the 2014 to 2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

While the 10th Ebola outbreak comes to an end, the DRC is facing a new one in Equateur province, where the virus previously erupted in May 2018.

 

Ebola heroes

Explore some stories of personal sacrifice, kindness and bravery behind the response to the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in the DRC

Timeline

 
1AUG

Ebola declared an Epidemic

The Democratic Republic of the Congo announces that preliminary laboratory results indicate a cluster of cases of Ebola virus in North Kivu province. The announcement came days after the Ministry of Health declared the end of an outbreak in the western Equateur Province. Read more
 
8AUG

Ebola vaccinations begin in North Kivu

The Ministry of Public Health launches Ebola vaccination for high risk populations in North Kivu province. The vaccinations begun just one week after the announcement of a second outbreak of Ebola in the country. Read more
 
26NOV

Ebola drug trial

The Ministry of Health announces that a randomized control trial has begun to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of drugs used in the treatment of Ebola patients. The trial is the first-ever multi drug trial for an Ebola treatment. Read more
 
28DEC

Protest disrupt response in Beni

Protests at government buildings in Beni spilled over to an Ebola transit centre, scaring people waiting for test results and the staff who were caring for them. Staff at the centre temporarily withdrew and most suspected cases transferred to a nearby treatment centre. Read more
 
19APR

Cameroonian doctor killed in hospital attack

Dr Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, an epidemiologist deployed by WHO to the Ebola response is killed in an armed attack on Butembo University Hospital. Two other people are injured in the attack. Read more
 
13JUN

Uganda reports Ebola case

Uganda confirms a case of Ebola in a five-year-old child from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who travelled with his family into Uganda after attending the funeral of his grandfather who died of Ebola. Read more
 
17JUL

Ebola declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern

Ebola is declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) after a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for EVD in the DRC. Read more
 
31JUL

Ebola outbreak marks a year

One year after the Ebola was declared an outbreak, more than 2600 people have contracted the virus and over 1800 have died in Ituri and North Kivu provinces. More than 770 have survived. Read more
 
29AUG

Ebola cases surpass 3000

WHO urges all partners to respond and increase their presence in the field to stop Ebola and to address one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world as cases reach 3000. Read more
 
23SEP

Second Ebola vaccine launched

The Government announces plans to introduce a second experimental Ebola vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson. This vaccine targets at-risk populations in areas that do not have active Ebola transmission. Read more
 
4OCT

1000 treated

More than 1000 people have survived Ebola since being declared an outbreak. The epidemic is evolving in an extremely complex environment, marked by poor health infrastructure, political instability, insecurity, community mistrust and resistance, and conflict involving scores of armed groups. Read more
 
28NOV

Health workers attacked

Four Ebola response workers killed and five others injured in two attacks in eastern DRC. The assailants targeted a shared living camp in Biakato mines and an Ebola response coordination office in Mangina area. Read more
 
12FEB

Ebola still an international emergency

The Ebola outbreak still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern. Risks are still deemed high at national and regional levels, but low at the global level. Read more
 
10MAR

Last Ebola contacts released

The observation period of the last people to have come in contact with an Ebola patient in the has ended, another significant step in the efforts to end the outbreak. Read more
 
10APR

New Ebola case confirmed

A new Ebola case confirmed in Beni two days before the ongoing outbreak was to be declared over. Read more
 
14MAY

Last patient after new flare-up discharged

The last Ebola patient after the latest flare-up of the virus in Beni discharged from a treatment centre. Read more
 
25JUN

DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak declared over

DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak is over

Communities: improving collaboration to halt Ebola

Winning community trust proved to be a critical element in combating Ebola in north-eastern DRC. Increasingly involving community leaders and influencers helped ease fears, reluctance and at times hostility that emergency responders often encountered. Learning to speak the local language, including community members in the response teams and the local authorities were some of the strategies used to break the barriers. WHO and other response teams soon learned that without community involvement, efforts to halt the virus would come short.

 

Stories

 

18 February 2020
Overcoming the fear of Ebola in marginalised communities

 

15 October 2019
Defeating Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo motivates a community to confront other diseases with handwashing

 

31 July 2019
Marginalised and mistrustful: listening to people who have few reasons to trust outsiders

Innovation: drugs and vaccines

Just a week after the Ebola outbreak was declared on 1 August 2018, vaccination for high-risk populations in North Kivu began. Frontline health workers were the first to be given the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine in Mangina health area near Beni, a town in the northeast DRC. A second vaccine was introduced in September 2019 targeted at-risk populations in areas not affected by Ebola to extend protection against the virus. For the first time, Ebola patients had access to therapeutic treatments.

 

Stories

 

22 November 2019
Ebola vaccinations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – In the community, by the community

 

12 November 2019
WHO prequalifies Ebola vaccine, paving the way for its use in high-risk countries

 

18 September 2019
Speeding up detection to slow down Ebola: Smartphone app is game-changer for contact tracing in hotspots in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

 

11 January 2019
New hope with Ebola drug trial

Legacy: transferring knowledge

Working with communities in the Ebola response has not only been essential in building confidence and trust, it also enabled the transfer of skills and resources to improve the capacity of health systems in the affected regions to better respond to outbreaks. The Ebola response has helped reinforce infections prevention and control in local health centres, while several DRC health workers received training in the various Ebola response aspects. The need for knowledge transfer in infectious disease outbreaks is now recognized as an essential investment. Some of the health workers trained during the 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa have been instrumental in the DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak response

 

Stories

 

10 March 2020
Ebola community health workers trained for the future

 

07 April 2020
Delivery in an Ebola treatment centre

 

26 September 2019
How fighting Ebola is helping one hospital prevent other diseases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo