Giving Compass' Take:

• Rachel Smidt discusses the first year of response efforts for the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

• How can funders best support Ebola response and prevention efforts? 

• Learn about what went wrong in the Ebola outbreak response in 2014. 

On August 1 2018, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) declared an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country’s North Kivu province, a region already plagued by violence and displacement.

Since then, the highly contagious and deadly virus has infected more than 2,600 people and caused more than 1,800 deaths, becoming the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history. Of those infected, almost one in three are children.

Right now multiple UN agencies — including WHO, UNICEF, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the World Food Programme (WFP) — are working alongside government officials in the DRC and Uganda to treat those infected, protect those at risk, and work to contain the virus.

This means:

  • More than 170,000 people have been vaccinated with a new and promising Ebola vaccine.
  • 1,300 patients have been treated with investigational therapies across 14 treatment and transit centers.
  • 77 million national and international travelers have been screened for the virus.
  • 20,000 contacts are visited daily to ensure they do not become sick.
  • 3,000 samples are tested in eight laboratories every week.
  • More than 10,000 hand-washing sites have been installed in critical locations.
  • More than 2,000 community engagement workers are now operating in affected areas.
  • More than 440,000 patients and contacts have received food assistance to limit movement.
  • 25,000 schoolchildren have been provided with daily meals in Ebola-affected areas.

Read the full article about Ebola response in DRC by Rachel Smidt at United Nations Foundation.