Local support and trust 'essential' to counter Ebola outbreaks

Trust and support from local communities is essential to control the outbreaks of filovirus haemorrhagic fevers (FHFs) such as Ebola and Marburg, according to two new reports.

The papers, produced by Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Spain and published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, revealed that while these FHFs do result in a high mortality rate, effective control procedures can limit the spread of the disease.

In their findings the MSF Spain team discovered that gaining the trust of local communities and incorporating local traditions into their control procedures increased their effectiveness.

Matthias Borchert, one of the report's authors, said: "Involving local authorities and respected influential individuals is an established principle of public health interventions in the community. Yet this principle is easily forgotten in the heat of an FHF outbreak.

"When MSF involved such authorities, community relations improved promptly and significantly, ameliorating case finding and outbreak control," he added.

According to World Health Organization figures, the Ebola virus causes death in 50 to 90 per cent of all clinically ill human cases.

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