article · American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
In mid-2020, the Democratic Republic of the Congo faced concurrent public health crises as the COVID-19 pandemic overlapped with a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Équateur Province. Managing these simultaneous emergencies required balancing transmission containment measures, such as lockdowns, against the economic hardships they cause and their disruptive effects on routine healthcare for other conditions. Although COVID-19 and Ebola spread differently, decades of experience managing ten prior Ebola outbreaks provided valuable operational frameworks. The national response adapted these established public health systems to address COVID-19 through a multi-sectoral strategy. Key components include community-based screening, diagnostic testing, contact tracing, risk communication, active community engagement, and clinical case management. Identifying ongoing operational challenges remains central to establishing effective control over both infectious diseases.
Managing concurrent disease outbreaks places immense pressure on national healthcare systems, especially in resource-constrained environments. Drawing upon established outbreak infrastructure allows health authorities to deploy targeted testing, tracing, and community engagement rapidly. This approach helps protect populations from multiple health threats while minimising unintended damage to essential medical services and the broader economy.
The abstract outlines operational public health strategies and institutional outbreak response models rather than proprietary technologies, so it does not indicate an application pathway for commercialisation.
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As of June 11, 2020, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported 4,258 COVID-19 cases with 90 deaths. With other African countries, the DRC faces the challenge of striking a balance between easing public health lockdown measures to curtail the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and minimizing both economic hardships for large sectors of the population and negative impacts on health services for other infectious and noninfectious diseases. The DRC recently controlled its tenth Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, but COVID-19 and a new EVD outbreak beginning on June 1, 2020 in the northwest Équateur Province have added an additional burden to health services. Although the epidemiology and transmission of EVD and COVID-19 differ, leveraging the public health infrastructures and experiences from coordinating the EVD response to guide the public health response to COVID-19 is critical. Building on the DRC's 40 years of experience with 10 previous EVD outbreaks, we highlight the DRC's multi-sectoral public health approach to COVID-19, which includes community-based screening, testing, contact-tracing, risk communication, community engagement, and case management. We also highlight remaining challenges and discuss the way forward for achieving control of both COVID-19 and EVD in the DRC.
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DOI: 10.4269/ajtmh.20-0642
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