Kinshasa – “Getting the Ebola vaccine has given me a deep sense of safety and can enable me to pay attention absolutely on my work,” says Chrysostome Kavusa Mwenderwa, a well being care employee at Kalunguta Referral Hospital in Beni, within the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Kavusa, 42, is amongst 18 748 frontline and well being care staff in 12 well being zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu province who had been vaccinated in opposition to Ebola between June and September 2023, a part of a drive by World Well being Group (WHO) in assist of nations to assist increase epidemic preparedness, and save lives.
“Well being care staff are liable for stopping illness, responding to outbreaks, and mitigating danger in communities. However the nature of their work places them at elevated danger for lethal infectious illnesses similar to Ebola, so preventive vaccination is essential wherever attainable,” says Dr Boureima Hama Sambo, WHO Consultant within the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Together with supporting preparedness efforts, Ebola vaccination additionally helps strengthen well being programs, paving the way in which for grownup vaccination programmes, Sambo provides.
“We now have leveraged skilled associations of physicians, nurses, midwifes and laboratory technicians, in addition to of Ebola survivors, together with schooling and spiritual our bodies and humanitarian companions, to encourage prophylactic vaccination for frontline and well being care staff,” says Dr Nanou Yanga Mukadi, Cholera Vaccination Focal Level and EPI Ebola Vaccination Officer.
“Planning begins at grassroots stage, with assist from the intermediate and central ranges and from companions, together with WHO. One necessary facet to focus on is awareness-raising. As well as, in-process and end-of-process monitoring is carried out to make sure that the targets are met,” Mukadi provides.
Together with Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau and Uganda have additionally begun preventive vaccination efforts. WHO urges different international locations at excessive danger to additionally take into account preventive Ebola vaccination.
Ebola is a extreme and sometimes deadly sickness, with demise charges of 70% to 90% when untreated. The 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa devastated communities and well being companies alike. WHO is encouraging international locations to prioritize the usage of the vaccine as a strong public well being software to guard well being care staff and different frontline service suppliers at excessive danger of publicity.
In 2023, WHO made a complete of 111 497 doses of the ERVEBO® vaccine from the worldwide stockpile accessible to high-risk African international locations, with the purpose of ramping up nation preparedness for future outbreaks. WHO additionally supported the federal government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to plan and coordinate preventive Ebola vaccination actions at operational and strategic ranges.
Well being care employee Kavusa Mwenderwa explains the risk from the Ebola virus: “Ebola is transmitted by contact with an contaminated affected person’s blood or bodily fluids, and even by contact with clothes or mattress linen contaminated with bodily fluids. Given the character of our work, the chance to us as well being staff is excessive.”
Throughout early phases of an Ebola virus outbreak, well being care staff are sometimes first affected, which might result in pointless deaths, employees shortages, and transmission to different sufferers.
His colleague, Remacle Kasereka Kitutu, 40, agrees: “The significance of getting vaccinated can’t be overemphasized. If we as well being staff are vaccinated in opposition to Ebola, we are able to work way more effectively and successfully, whereas persevering with to take all of the really useful precautions to keep away from an infection.”