ICAN member Elie Kasindi Kabululu Deputy President of Nursing Association & Coordinator of Infection prevention team has provided an account of working on the ground in Beni, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.

I am the coordinator of NGO known as Medical Team of Volunteer, Focal point of Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN ) and coordinator of Infection prevention and control at the CME NYANKUNDE BENI hospital . Since the occurring of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the area Elie is trying to call for support to involve his teams in the EVD outbreak ground, sadly he has yet not had success .

The ICAN team in outbreak area has 6 Medical Doctors , 3 Nurses and two other health officers , Our NGO has locally one doctor and four nurses and other medical officer , our hospital has 35 nurses , five doctors ,five laboratory assistants and others. We are trying to call the international assistance in order to involve any of the above teams in the current EVD outbreak.

Our country Ministry of Health (MoH) and international partners have already set up many disposals to contain the outbreak but the needs of many sectors of intervention remain in the ground Here above I have shared the photo of my voluntary ( 0 resource) intervention in the villages with Dr NICAISE who is working in behalf of the internationals NGOs. We had to be convoyed by the security forces in our insecure area . We have been able to investigate two cases, one suspected death and one cases from the epicenter village presenting, fever, diarrhea , vomit, headache, but the hemorrhage was not reported .

For death case we have been able to investigate as well as tracing contacts , monitor and then call the team trained in proper burial , for the suspected case from the epicenter village we have called for the ambulance to take him at the Ebola Treatment Unity ( ETU). . We have taken the opportunity to educate the community about the risk of transmission ,signs and symptoms , benefit of early diagnosis and treatment and importance of isolating sick family members . From this visit I have concluded that the need remains enough in the community mainly the awareness , the nutritional and hygienic assistance for the patients and their family and the motivation of the health provider worker who are working desperately in this difficult area.

Before going in the ground we have to remind the protection measures including keeping a distance of at least 2 meters with a suspect case and materials and to keep performing rigorously hand hygiene. Without any resource, we are trying to do what we can to be involved in fighting this EVD outbreak and save many lives, we are therefore looking the support to help our teams cited above to be active , visible and impactful in our area.

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Kind regards
Elie KASINDI KABULULU
Deputy President of Nursing Association & Coordinator of Infection prevention team
CME NYANKUNDE HOSPITAL / Coordinator of EMV NGO and Member of International Aids
Society (IAS) D R CONGO , Infection Control Africa Network ( ICAN) member