The return of Ebola: previous Groupe URD studies on this subject

With a new outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and this time in a region that includes urban areas with major road and river networks, it is important to recall the lessons learned during the previous crisis:

• Protecting medical staff, and protecting interventions to detect and manage patients, must be a top priority in crisis management;
• Prevention and protection messages should be disseminated at all levels to ensure that the proper reflexes to reduce the risk of contamination are understood and adopted by all;
• Logistical means need to be made available to ensure actors are mobile in both rural and urban areas;
• Rumours claiming, for example, that humanitarian staff are spreading the disease on purpose, could make managing the crisis more difficult, and need to be countered using the relevant means of communication.