Community response to the Ebola outbreak: Contribution of community-based organisations and community leaders in four health districts in Guinea

Abstract

The major challenges in controlling the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Guinea were contact tracing, referral of suspected cases, secure burial and mistrust in the context of a weak health system. Community involvement and uptake of key interventions were very low, contributing to the spread of the epidemic. A community engagement project, using community based organisations (CBOs) and community leaders, was implemented in four affected health districts in rural Guinea. This paper reports on the contribution of the CBOs and community leaders in controlling the EVD outbreak. Base-, mid-and endline assessments were conducted using a mixed methods approach. In total, 422 CBOs members, 50 community leaders and 40 village birth attendants were engaged in social mobilisation, awareness raising, reaching 154,310 people and leading to the end of reluctance and mistrust. Thus, 95 suspected cases were referred to health facilities, contact tracing and secure burial increased from 88.0% to 96.6% and from 67% to 95.4%, respectively, and institutional deliveries increased from 637 to 806. Involvement of CBOs and community leaders against the EVD outbreak is an effective resource that should also be considered to better respond to possible large-scale epidemic threats in a fragile health system context.

Operational challenges in the pre-intervention phase of a mental health trial in rural India: reflections from SMART Mental Health

“…Engagement with community and religious leaders for wider acceptance of health interventions has been demonstrated to work in several LMIC contexts. Successful engagement with Muslim opinion leaders for improved uptake of maternal and child health services in Nigeria [ 47 ], engagement with community leaders in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak [ 48 ] and partnership with community leaders in Democratic Republic of Congo for better access to contraceptive and abortion care [ 49 ] have been reported. Due to their position in the community, they are in a unique position to positively influence community level health interventions.…”

Actor‐network analysis of community‐based organisations in health pandemics: evidence from the COVID‐19 response in Freetown, Sierra Leone

“…Consequently, scholars underline the importance of engaging community actors to improve understanding and responses to health disasters (Wilkinson, 2017;Camara et al, 2020). In the absence of such engagement, Camara et al (2020) observed that interventions were ineffective and unresponsive. Hence, involving communities in health disasters is not only critical, but also legitimate and essential for community and health system resilience (Wilkinson, 2017(Wilkinson, , 2020Camara et al, 2020).…”

New Mixed Methods Approach for Monitoring Community Perceptions of Ebola and Response Efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“…Although the concepts are not new in humanitarian settings, community engagement has been slower to be fully incorporated into epidemic response structures, 3,4 despite growing evidence that community engagement strengthens epidemic control. [5][6][7][8][9] The hesitation to embrace community engagement in epidemic emergency response may stem from the fact that authentic engagement requires an investment of time and resources in understanding community needs, as well as a willingness to change epidemic control strategies based on community feedback.…”