MSD South Africa joins the global public health community in applauding the announcement by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) declaring the end of the Ebola outbreak in the eastern portion of the DRC.
“While an outbreak of Ebola continues in the northwestern part of the country, ending the Ebola outbreak in the eastern part of the DRC is a significant milestone. This effort required organisations, people and actions whose collective primary intent was to promote, restore and maintain a healthy population. As an organisation operating in Sub-Saharan Africa, we are glad to have been part of this journey,” said Dr. Priya Agrawal
Managing Director MSD, South Africa and Sub- Saharan Africa Cluster. “As the world confronts the unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and the DRC faces a new Ebola outbreak among other public health challenges, lessons from these efforts will help to
continuously improve response efforts to infectious disease outbreaks.These experiences are stark reminders of the importance of global solidarity as well as strong, sustainable
health systems more broadly.”
MSD commends the leadership and courage of everyone who fought to end this Ebola outbreak and those who are currently responding to the latest outbreak, particularly the Government of the DRC, the World Health Organization and its Regional Office for Africa,
Médecins Sans Frontières, community organizations, health care workers, and frontline responders, many of whom put their own lives at risk to save others.MSD remains focused on the important work ahead and continues to collaborate closely with our stakeholders on efforts to help advance global public health preparedness to respond to
the Zaire Ebolavirus disease.
