Ebola Virus Disease Emergency Response Plan

This document discusses the Ebola Virus Disease Emergency Response Plan, which includes strategies for engagement, consultation, participation, organization, capacity building, action, and empowerment. It emphasizes the importance of community engagement and coordination among various stakeholders.

Running head: EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN 1
Emergency Response Plan
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EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN 2
Emergency Response Plan
Introduction
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) also referred to as as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a relentless, often
lethal sickness in humans. This virus is passed on to humans from animals such as gorillas and
spreads in the humans by transmissions. The average Ebola Virus Disease case fatality rate is
approximately 50 per cent while case fatality rates have fluctuated from 25 per cent to 90 per
cent in previous occurrences (World Health Organization, 2018). Community engagement is
very vital to fruitfully controlling outbreaks of this fatal ailment. Efficient outbreak control
depends on applying a package of interventions, namely engagement, consultation, participation,
organisation, capacity building, action and possibly empowerment. The general goal of this
response is to lead to a considerable decline of morbidity and mortality related to the Ebola Virus
Disease occurrence, to avert the extend of the outbreak to other areas of an affected country, and
to neighboring countries and to address instantaneous humanitarian repercussions created by the
EVD outbreaks.
RESPONSE PLAN
Engagement: An Ebola Virus Disease outbreak response is exceedingly multifaceted and calls
for an efficient engagement of all relevant partners at all levels. The coordination or the
engagement process should able to capitalize on both the collective and individual strengths of
all partners. Proper engagement structures should be set up in all areas ranging from the most
prone regions to the least susceptible ones. Existing engagement mechanisms of the control of
epidemics at the national and Ministry of Health levels should be strengthened to ensure

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proactive contributions of every actor partaking in the EVD response process. Besides, rapid
response teams can be established in every operational center identified in the epidemic-affected
area for quick and multi-sectoral evaluation of alerts disseminated by the surveillance
mechanisms. At the engagement juncture, the concerned team should ascertain incessant and
comprehensive evaluation of the progress of the emergency in order to augment the
comprehension on the plan of the response, based on methodical proof (World Health
Organization, 2019).
Consultation: The other step is to examine the impact of EVD outbreak scenarios identified
during the risk assessment, since these shall help in determining the range of control options.
Where possible, particular control plans ought to be developed in consultation with individuals
who have experience with similar outbreak situations. It is vital to conduct consultation with
government and other partners in various key areas which need expanded response due to higher
risk of EVD. Proper consultations should be done to seek assistance from all potentially helpful
professionals such as doctors and other specialist consultants with wide and deep experience in
matters to do with EVD (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2016). This is a matter of urgency and
thus there should be consultation with independent medical researchers, public health experts,
regulators, and representatives from the affected regions. All-embracing consultations will lead
to the prioritization of a pick out of therapeutics, vaccines, – including blood products, biologics,
and drugs, – and diagnostics.
Participation: In the response strategy, there should be active participation and active
contribution of various parties such as health workers, community members, and Ebola
survivors. These actors will be available to provide technical support to numerous activities in

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order to offer a swift, efficient and adequate response to the needs of the afflicted populations.
Participation will also ensure close coordination between social services, community structures,
advocacy teams, leaders, and health services. Extensive participation of various parties will as
well maximize joint efforts of every stakeholder taking part in the response plan by unremitting
surveillance of activities and technical support of partners (World Health Organization, 2019). In
place, there should be a risk communications plan for the Ebola tragedy response containing
active community participation strategies (not including huge gatherings) to make sure
community involvement in communication messaging.
Organisation: Speedy detection and segregation of new cases is a fundamental aspect of the
response plan since it what prevents onward transmission of the EVD. This requires proper
organization so as to achieve common goals and balance many tasks involved efficiently and
effectively (World Health Organization, 2015). If operations in the response plan are not
properly organized, tasks will pile up during the actual occurrence of the disease, paperwork gets
lost, and significant amount of time is spend on tracing information that is supposed to be readily
available. Proper organization will save the response stakeholders time and reduce stress
associated with the last minute rush. Various activities in the response plan calls for good
organizational skills. In order to ensure splendid risk communication, community engagement,
and social mobilization, participants are expected to organize and train social mobilization and
communication teams (Rull, Kickbusch, & Lauer, 2015). Key operational support mechanisms,
procedures, and infrastructure must be set up to allow all aspects of the response and primary
activities which need to be organized include workspaces and living arrangements, mobilizing
experienced human resources to reinforce the response, ensuring the transportation of equipment

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and teams at all levels, and providing communication and logistical assistance to epidemiological
scrutiny teams.
Capacity building: This refers to the process through which different individuals and
organisations participating in the response process acquire, enhance, and maintain the skills,
equipment, tools, knowledge, and other pertinent resources needed to do accomplish their goals
in a sustainable way. The capacity of health personnel, community representatives, management
teams from health zones, and nurses tasked with responding to EVD outbreaks should be
strengthened. They should for example be provided with refresher trainings and coaching. By
building their capacities, these players will develop competences and skills which can make them
more sustainable and effective in handling EVD. Besides, in order to achieve their primary goal,
the response team is expected to build the capacity of the national and sub-national labs to deect
Ebola Virus Disease. Also, it is prudent to strengthen the capacity of neighboring regions or
nations at risk of EVD for early detection and response to imported cases of Ebola, including exit
screening (World Health Organization, 2017). The outbreak of the EVD places a sprain on the
pillars of the health systems that were already encountering numerous difficulties. In order to
ensure that the different health structures have coped adequately with the increased demand
owing to the high demand for healthcare and likely future health occurrences of this nature, it is
paramount to build their capability in every pillar of the health systems (infrastructure, human
resources, equipment, medicines and other health necessities) so that the local health systems are
as robust as possible. Therefore, a particular prominence should be put on reinforcing these
pillars for a more effectual response and an enhanced discovery and response than probable
future occurrences.

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Action: local and national authorities and partners should move swiftly to respond to EVD
outbreak. Quick response teams from the local and national levels should be deployed to the
susceptible area to conduct case examination, trace contacts, and also introduce case
management and other control mechanisms. In addition, a roadmap regrouping particular disaster
actions need to be detailed (World Health Organization, 2019). These include the activation of
the national coordinating committee for epidemic response; the official announcement of the
occurrence by the Ministry of Health as a public health emergency; the deployment of a multi-
sectoral field team and a mobile field laboratory; the inventory of available intervention kits; exit
screening and the development of a national response plan.
Empowerment: All participants taking part in the response process of EVD should be
adequately empowered so that they can remain committed, loyal, and potentially more
productive (World Health Organization, 2015). When all stakeholders in the EVD response
intervention are provide with the knowledge, resources, and tools required to successfully
combat Ebola, the benefits are endless. Empowered participants are more likely to embrace
changes in the response plan, communicate efficiently and promptly, follow best public health
practices, go the extra mile, be more productive, develop a “can do” attitude.
Conclusion
Ebola Virus Disease is an uncommon and fatal ailment noted commonly to be affecting people
as well as nonhuman primates such as chimpanzees, gorillas, and monkeys. Thus it is very
important to design a response plan to control its spread and severity. This paper contains one of
such response plans prepared in a top-down approach. This approach has identified a big picture
of the plan and all of its pertinent components. These components are the primary driving force

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for the end goal of this response plan. Unlike a bottom-up approach, top-down methodology has
provided all participants and stakeholders with a detailed overview of the factors affecting the
overall objective of the Ebola response plan.

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References
Rull, M., Kickbusch, I., & Lauer, H. (2015). Policy Debate | International Responses to Global
Epidemics: Ebola and Beyond. International Development Policy .
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2016, December ). Evaluation of Unicef’s Response To The
Ebola Outbreak In West Africa 2014–2015. Retrieved from UNICEF:
https://www.unicef.org/evaluation/files/UNICEF-Ebola_SummaryLR.pdf
World Health Organization. (2015). 2015 WHO STRATEGIC RESPONSE PLAN West Africa
Ebola Outbreak. Retrieved from World Health Organization:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/163360/9789241508698_eng.pdf?
sequence=1
World Health Organization. (2015, April ). Liberia succeeds in fighting Ebola with local, sector
response. Retrieved from World Health Organization:
https://www.who.int/features/2015/ebola-sector-approach/en/
World Health Organization. (2017). Kenya steps up its EBOLA Contingency Plan with training
of trainers. Retrieved from World Health Organization:
https://www.afro.who.int/news/kenya-steps-its-ebola-contingency-plan-training-trainers
World Health Organization. (2018, February 12). Ebola virus disease. Retrieved from World
Health Organization: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-
disease

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World Health Organization. (2019). Community engagement in the Ebola response. Retrieved
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