Africa CDC and WHO call for urgent, community-led action to contain Ebola in the DRC
Below are extracts from a WHO news release and a comment from me. Full text:
https://hq_who_departmentofcommunications.cmail19.com/t/d-e-wzuto-hlddyk...
'People must receive clear information from voices they know and trust. They must be able to recognize symptoms, report alerts early and seek care without fear. Communities must be directly involved in surveillance, referrals, treatment, safe and dignified burials and decisions affecting their families. Community, religious, women and youth leaders have a critical role in building trust, addressing concerns and ensuring that response measures reflect local realities...
“Containing and ultimately stopping this outbreak will come from communities,” said Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa CDC. “When people have information they trust, can report symptoms early and seek care without fear, we can break every chain of transmission. Our responsibility is to bring the response closer to communities and give frontline teams the support they need.”
COMMENT (NPW): This new WHO–Africa CDC release reflects a shift that has taken place across global health over the past two decades. When HIFA started in 2006, the importance of reliable healthcare information was rarely mentioned in public health strategies or emergency response plans. Today, as this release shows, it is emphasised routinely: trusted information, early reporting, and informed community action are recognised as essential pillars of outbreak control (and routine health services). It is encouraging to see this wider awareness. HIFA has helped to drive this shift by continually advocating for universal access to reliable information and by bringing together thousands of professionals to highlight information gaps and their consequences. Thank you to all HIFA members and supporting organisations for being part of this shared effort to champion reliable healthcare information worldwide.
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