Rwanda Health officials will conduct Tuesday several drills and functional exercises across different remote hospital located on the border with Décratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as part of national efforts to test and validate capabilities for rapid detection, rapid response, and effective coordination at national and district level against on-going outbreak of Ebola in North Kivu.
A senior official in the ministry of Health confirmed to APA in Kigali that The drills will also focus on screening, infection prevention andcontrol, safe detection and isolation of suspected Ebola cases for hospital staff.
The plan prioritized 2 districts hospital in Gisenyi (North West) and Gihundwe (South West), the head of Epidemic Surveillance and Response (ESR) Division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) Dr. Jose Nyamusore said.
It said the overall exercise has put gathered WHO Country Office’s health partners, including the Rwanda Ministry of Health mainly in charge of policies, the Rwanda Biomedical Center (RBC) which is the implementing arm working with the Districts, the Ministry in charge of Emergency, the staff of the Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC), NGOs, international Agencies.
The scenario will also included elements such as public anxieties, community resistance, spread of rumors, intense media demands.
Some key Operations to be tested include donning and doffing of personal protective equipment (PPE); preparation of chlorine solution; collection, labeling and triple packaging of blood samples (pre-analytic phase); terminal disinfection and waste management at health care centre; vehicle disinfection; burials; data management, analysis and interpretation; reporting; contact listing; contact investigation; press conference; media release; community negotiation.
This second large scale simulation exercise is conducted by Rwanda’s health officials after the World Health Organisation (WHO) reiterated concern earlier last week over sustained local transmission and a high number of new Ebola cases in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in DRC has caused 1,756 deaths as of 23 July, the second largest since it was discovered in 1976.
In addition, the UN agency explained that rumours of his contacts travelling to Bukavu, South Kivu, were investigated and ruled out by response teams.
No new cases have been reported in Goma to date and there are currently no confirmed cases of EVD outside of DRC, the UN agency said.
CU/abj/APA