A Red Cross medical specialist team has been deployed to work as part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) emergency response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Produced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under a very-high magnification, this digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a single filamentous Ebola virus particle that had budded from the surface of a VERO cell of the African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line.
Produced by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under a very-high magnification, this digitally-colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a single filamentous Ebola virus particle that had budded from the surface of a VERO cell of the African green monkey kidney epithelial cell line.

In a statement released on June 13, the IFRC said the team is made up of doctors, nurses and water and sanitation experts drawn from six National Red Cross Societies. They will work in five health facilities in the city of Mbandaka to prevent the spread of the disease and support the infected.

“Alongside the deployment of this expert team, Red Cross volunteers are working in four neighbouring provinces to raise awareness of the risks of Ebola. IFRC is also working with Red Cross societies from the nine countries neighbouring the DRC to activate readiness and preparedness mechanisms,” the IFRC said.

As of 12 June, 55 suspected cases of Ebola had been confirmed in DRC. There were 38 confirmed cases and 28 deaths. Five new suspected cases were reported in the Iboko and Wangata local government areas of Mbandaka in the past 48 hours.

The IFRC and the DRC Red Cross are part of a larger coordinated response that includes local government authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO) and several other partners.