Below are extracts. Full text and video here: https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-openi...
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Yesterday I returned from a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including to the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri...
community mistrust is a serious barrier. Some community leaders told me that they believe Ebola is not real.
Building trust with the communities is therefore critical to bringing the outbreak under control...
Although vaccines and therapeutics would be a big help, the key to ending this outbreak is not biomedical.
It’s leadership, ownership, partnership and trust: Government leadership; Community ownership; Strong partnership between the many actors involved, working with one budget, one plan and one report;
And building trust in the affected communities...
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COMMENT (NPW): Why do people believe Ebola is not real. I did a quick search and the following paper sheds some light on this:
CITATION: J Immunol Sci. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Feb 8.
Two Obstacles in Response Efforts to the Ebola Epidemic in the Provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Denial of and Rumors about the Disease
Nkechi G Onyeneho et al.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7615618/?
ABSTRACT
Denial and rumors are two major obstacles impairing the implementation of activities in response to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic. This study investigated the roles of denial and rumors, among other challenges, in complicating the response to the EVD outbreak in the North Kivu and Ituri provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A total of 800 randomly selected respondents were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 community religious and opinion leaders, as well as Ebola survivors. Furthermore, 20 focus group discussions were conducted with adult and youth male and female participants, and health care workers. The results revealed that the existence of the disease is widely denied by many, including political leaders, village chiefs, neighborhood chiefs, street chiefs, avenue chiefs, and members of the general population. These individuals generally consider the EVD to be the result of a misbehavior or a curse; consequently, the general population, including community members, teachers, and even health care professionals, refuse to comply with the authorities’ strategies to fight the epidemic. Rumors are another obstacle in response efforts. Rumors pertaining to the denial of the existence of the EVD, as well as the epidemic, Ebola treatment centers, hospitals, vaccines, and safe and dignified burials have been identified. Rumors about the EVD and the response, spread by clerics, traditional therapists, men, and women, including healthcare professionals in focus group discussions, portrayed the EVD as an invention, as if the virus had been created. The response to the EVD has been marked by these two constraints, which have often hindered the involvement of community members in the fight against the disease.
Best wishes, Neil
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