{"id":35184,"date":"2026-05-22T20:13:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=35184"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T18:13:03","slug":"volunteers-go-door-to-door-in-drc-to-tackle-ebola-rumors-red-cross","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/volunteers-go-door-to-door-in-drc-to-tackle-ebola-rumors-red-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers go door-to-door in DRC to tackle Ebola rumors: Red Cross"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Volunteers are going door-to-door to combat misinformation about Ebola in the area at \u200cthe centre of the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) , the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said this Friday.<\/div>\n<div>The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment, was declared an emergency of international concern \u200bby the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The IFRC said it is working with communities in Mongbwalu, at \u200bthe heart of the outbreak, to explain how people can protect themselves and when \u2060to seek care.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cCommunity reactions remain mixed. For some people the outbreak is very real and they are taking \u200binformation on how to protect themselves,\u201d Gabriela Arenas, the Regional Operations Co-ordinator for the IFRC Africa Region, told reporters \u200bvia video link from Nairobi.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;For others, there\u2019s still suspicion and misinformation claiming that Ebola is fabricated.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Tensions have surfaced locally. Protesters set fire to tents for Ebola patients after DRC authorities refused to give them the dead body of a beloved local footballer suspected \u200bto have died in the outbreak. They wanted to bury him themselves and his family disputed that Ebola \u200bhad killed him.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The episode demonstrated why building trust in communities is so important, Arenas said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Bodies of Ebola victims are highly infectious \u200cafter death, \u2060and unsafe burials where family members handle the body without proper protective equipment are a leading driver of transmission.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cWhen someone dies from Ebola, all of the fluids in their body that could be sweat, saliva, any fluids at all, contain usually quite a high viral load,&#8221; said Laura Archer, the IFRC Lead for Clinical Care \u200band Public Health in Emergencies.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;So \u200banyone who touches the \u2060body during carrying, washing, shrouding, moving is at extremely high risk of contracting the virus.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The IFRC said its teams on the ground in DRC have already carried out \u200b15 safe and dignified burials. Explaining to families, who are often scared and emotional, \u200babout the \u2060procedure of having a safe burial and funeral of their relatives was also important to limit spread.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cEbola outbreaks start and end between communities, and this is why the local engagement remains so central to the response,\u201d Arenas said, adding \u2060that rumors \u200bstem from fear and a lack of trusted information.<\/div>\n<div>The IFRC has \u200bpre-positioned stocks of specialist thick body bags needed for Ebola cases. However, it says it will soon need to procure more stocks from \u200babroad, which could be subject to complex logistic challenges.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34676,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-35184","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The IFRC said it is working with communities in Mongbwalu.","published_date":"","news_description":"The IFRC said it is working with communities in Mongbwalu.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35185,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/35184\/revisions\/35185"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=35184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}