Status of the Ebola Outbreak in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve

In the 33 years OCP has been working in Eastern DR Congo (formerly Zaire), we have seen and experienced many disruptions including civil war and attacks by rebel groups but the insidious effects of the Ebola epidemic is undermining civil society in a way that has wide-ranging effect on people’s ability to trust each other and those trying to help them. Along the roads in eastern DRC you come upon many health control points where you must get out of your vehicle, register, wash your hands and have your temperature checked. If it is over 38 degrees Celsius you are asked to sit down and rest and your temperature is rechecked, if it remains high you are taken to an Ebola Treatment Center for further evaluation. Since the beginning of the outbreak, the cumulative number of travelers checked at health checkpoints is 134,802,696. That is an astonishing number. The nearby town of Mambasa had a major outbreak mainly due to infected miners coming out of the forest and in response, ICCN put in strict controls at the Zunguluka entrance to the Reserve and at the entrance to Epulu Station. To set a good example all OCP staff stop to wash their hands and get their temperature checked each time they enter or leave the station. After a child died of Ebola in Epulu all OCP staff and most residents were vaccinated (you had to be in an active Ebola zone to get vaccinated).  To read more, click here.