Year-end Analysis: 2019 saw cross-border collaboration on Ebola outbreak response between Rwanda and DR Congo
Kigali, Rwanda (PANA) - For Rwanda, 2019 marked a significant milestone in strengthening cross-border collaboration on preparedness and response to Ebola virus and other disease outbreaks from eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Following the Ebola outbreak in north-eastern DRC, which has continued for more than one year, and the increasing potential to spread into the countries, Rwanda is among 10 African countries that endorsed a joint framework last October to strengthen cross-border collaboration on preparedness and response to Ebola virus outbreak especially.
Health officials are convinced that the movement of people, goods and services across borders can heighten the risk of transmission of infectious pathogens that cause diseases, such as Ebola. Rwandan health minister, Diane Gashumba and her DRC counterpart Pierre Kangudia last August therefore unveiled a joint plan designed to reduce the risk of the Ebola virus spreading across their transborder region.
During a meeting which took place behind closed doors in Gisenyi, a small town in northwestern Rwanda, the two senior Government officials acknowledged that the number of people moving around or through the zone worst hit by Ebola was a big challenge for health services.
The move comes after officials in the DRC confirmed earlier that the Ebola virus has spread to the eastern city of Goma.
The city, which is adjacent to Gisenyi in western Rwanda's Rubavu district, registers daily border crossings of about 100,000 people, according to the Rwanda Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration.
At times there was growing fear among health officials that the virus could spread quickly in a densely populated area close to the Rwandan border, especially the DR Congo city of Goma. Rwanda has since last July embarked on providing training for medical staff at health facilities, security organs, the Red Cross volunteers, Community Health Workers on Ebola case management.
As part of prevention measures, Rwandan authorities warned the public against inviting people from Ebola-hit areas in DRC, insisting that unessential cross-border trade should be avoided. But this decision changed a few weeks later after security agents from both sides of the border decided to enforce hand-washing, fever checks as the deadly Ebola outbreak was declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an international health emergency.
The WHO's rare emergency declaration in July for the second worst Ebola outbreak in history came after its expert committee declined on three previous occasions to recommend it, to the impatience of some health experts who for months had expressed alarm.
WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.
Since July this year, a number of activities and field interventions have been undertaken including continual monitoring and assessment of high risks zones located on the affected neighbouring countries with a first ever functional Ebola Treatment Centre, which has rapidly been implemented in Rubavu.
Currently, Rwand's two border districts with the DRC at risk are Rubavu and Gisenyi as well as the urban district of Kicukiro, where an international airport is located.
However, the country has the following existing safety locks: a robust coordination mechanism for disasters and other public health emergencies; a multi-hazard public health preparedness and response plan and an updated and budgeted national Ebola virus disease preparedness and response plan.
As part of prevention mechanisms, Rwandan Health authorities introduced a Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine early this month targeting individuals who are regularly moving across the border with neighbouring countries to counter the current outbreak.
According to the Director General of Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, the J&J vaccine will complement another vaccine manufactured by Merck, which has been administered to more than 3,000 people, especially in Western province, near the border with the DRC.
The new vaccine requires two injections eight weeks apart while the Merck vaccine requires just one injection, it said.
According to official estimates, a total 23,657 stakeholders in Rwanda's healthcare system have until recently been trained in Ebola control and prevention.
Those who benefited from the training as at September included community health care workers, Red Cross volunteers, army and police officers, medical doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, psychologists and other infection prevention and control experts.
The country has invested in massive simultaneous community awareness and mobilization for engagement through adequately adapted, developed and selectively validated materials for community information education and communication.
Among other key activities undertaken are enhancing laboratory capacity to ensure timely sample collection, testing and confirmation and extended access protocol for Ebola vaccination targeting frontline healthcare providers and Ebola prospective responders.
While stressing that case management of Ebola was among critical value points within the Ebola management chain, simulations were conducted to show how Rwanda is prepared in terms of prevention.
Rwandan Health officials said though the country currently has no suspected or confirmed case of Ebola, it would continue to check the readiness of healthcare providers, and other stakeholders following various training exercises about treatment and prevention measures.
-0- PANA TWA/MA 30Dec2019
