Summary: A simultaneous outbreak of yellow fever, cholera, and measles is ongoing in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since the beginning of 2016. From week 1 to week 30 of 2016, 63 cases of Yellow Fever have been confirmed in DRC. The 63 cases include 8 indigenous cases, 3 sylvatic cases, and 49 cases confirmed as being imported, mainly from neighbouring Angola. From week 1 to week 28, some 13 health zones in 8 provinces notified 7,498 cases of measles and 117 deaths. Out of the cases notified, 1,216 cases have been examined, and 106 of them have been confirmed as being cases of Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and measles. From week 1 to week 28, 13,998 cases of cholera and 341 deaths have been notified. While the number of cases were going down until week 24, a new wave of cholera cases and deaths started appearing, particularly during weeks 28 and 29.
While the epidemics started in specific localities of the country, the tendency during this reporting period was to spread all over the national territory. This development has prompted the launching of several immunization campaigns to help contain the epidemics. The country is presently in the rainy season and continued efforts by all humanitarian actors involved are geared towards preventing the further spread of cholera. As far as the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is concerned, there is strong support from the Swedish Red Cross in DRC, and a memorandum of understanding has been signed between the IFRC Yaoundé and the DRC Red Cross to enable the host National Society to intensify response activities.
The President of DRC Red Cross passed on and the National Society (NS) has been without a President for some months, and this has been affecting operations implementation adversely. IFRC supported the organization of a NS General Assembly (GA), which resulted in the election of a new President for the NS on 17 August 2016. IFRC has also deployed its Regional Health Coordinator, Communications Officer and Finance Officer to help the DRC Red Cross start the operation while the planned delegates are being recruited.
Coordination and partnerships Since the launching of the operation, IFRC Yaoundé has been maintaining regular contact with the DRC Red Cross and the Swedish Red Cross representative in DRC to make sure that all planned activities will be carried out. An operation monitoring team has been set up and is composed of the host NS, IFRC and the Swedish Red Cross.
This team is led by the Red Cross of DRC whose responsibility is to implement planned activities. IFRC and Swedish Red Cross are providing technical support and joining efforts to mobilize resources for the operation. As part of IFRC support, 3 delegate positions have been opened to support the implementation of the operation. These are an Operations Manager, a Logistics Delegate and a Health Coordinator. While these international staff are being recruited, IFRC Yaoundé has already deployed its Health Coordinator, Communications and Finance Officers to DRC to help start the operation smoothly.
On their part, the Ministry of Health has set up 3 coordination teams to manage the 3 epidemics. The members of such teams include WHO, UNICEF, JICA, CDC, ECHO, MSF France, MSF Belgium, IFRC and the Red Cross of DRC. These teams meet regularly every week to discuss the various epidemics and the possible solutions.
WHO and UNICEF have been supporting the notification of suspected cases, providing reactants to the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) laboratory for the screening and confirmation of cases. The two partners are also supporting communications and the preparation and organization of the various immunization campaigns.
JICA supplied reactants to the INRB laboratory for the screening and confirmation of cases. They have also provided experts to help the screening process. This support was particularly important when the laboratory was paralyzed for 3 weeks. JICA has also pledged a non-refundable financial support of 3,500,000 USD to be divided to key partners as follows:
USD 2,500,000 to WHO
USD 500,000 to IOM
USD 500,000 to IFRC
ECHO has facilitated the deployment of a mobile laboratory in Kwango Province. This laboratory has been installed in the Kahemba hospital for the biological test of suspected cases of Yellow Fever.
MSF Belgium has been ensuring the management of suspected and confirmed cases at the Hôpital Sino-Congolais of Kinshasa. They are also taking an active part in vector control by spraying around the places were confirmed cases have been discovered. Another contribution of this actor is to strengthen the capacities of nurses and traditional healers on the clinical signs of Yellow Fever, and the need for early reference of suspected cases in case management centres.
MSF France has been supporting the Kahemba hospital with Yellow Fever case management kits.