Extracts below. Read online: https://healthpolicy-watch.news/ebola-cases-climb-25-as-un-warns-outbrea...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ebola outbreak is the fastest-growing on record, Africa CDC told its weekly briefing on Wednesday, with confirmed cases up 25% over the past week to 1,759 and deaths reaching 600...
Misinformation continues to drive attacks on responders, as communities continue to doubt the very existence of Ebola and resist safe-burial practices, which require the difficult step of separating a family from their loved one when they pass away, due to the virus remaining contagious after people pass away. The extent of the mistrust is deep...
A Lancet Infectious Diseases study conducted in Beni and Butembo following the 2018 outbreak found that one in four respondents believed the Ebola outbreak was not real, and that such beliefs were strongly associated with a “decreased likelihood of adopting preventive behaviours, including acceptance of Ebola vaccines.”
“We need more community health workers deployed urgently, and we need to keep protecting our healthcare workers by spreading accurate information, not contributing to misinformation and disinformation, and by making personal protective equipment available to avoid infection,” Mankoula said.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org