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Following a study phase in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), medical surveys finally identified seven towns as the main centers of the spread of cholera. The time has now come to fight this killer disease.
The surveys conducted with perseverance, often in hostile conditions, helped identify seven towns that are centers for the initiation and spread of these epidemics in eastern DRC, most of them situated on the shores of lakes. Many players are now aware of the need to act: epidemiologists of the Congo Health Ministry, the Regideso (national authority for water management), partner NGOs such as Solidarités International and Veoliaforce.
The first town in which the program is being implemented is Kalemie, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, in Katanga province. Operations are of three types. Technically, the water production and distribution infrastructures will be refurbished and reinforced; medically, all the patients will be taken under observation to forestall any renewed propagation of the disease; and educationally, hygiene awareness will be intensified among the population.
In July 2007, the Veolia Environnement Foundation made a first financial grant for studies conducted by Congolese doctors and French epidemiologists, including Professor Renaud Piarroux of the University of Besançon (now working at the University of Marseille). These studies are part of a national plan conducted over the 2008-2012 time period, to eradicate cholera in DRC. This plan is organised by the congolese health department.
This water based disease, which causes vomiting and devastating diarrhea, is responsible for thousands of deaths every year. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2008, the DRC represented 14% of cholera cases in the world, and 22% of deaths linked to the disease, worldwide.
For four whole years, the two teams gathered vital information in an attempt to understand how the disease propagates at a given time and at a given place. The goal is to be able to draw a precise map of the areas where cholera spreads and target the water system in these areas. This work allowed for the recognition of the most sensitive areas of action and, also, to establish the work necessary to renovate the water system and make it drinkable.
Three-pronged action: technical, medical, educational
In Kalemie, a number of volunteer missions took place since 2007 with doctors from the Congo, the congolese Regideso, the NGO Solidarités, Congolese doctors and Veoliaforce volunteer experts. These missions were aimed to draw a map of the water system in the town in order to target the needs for drinkable water, and to identify the preliminary measures designed to reinforce epidemiological monitoring activities. Following the studies conducted during these missions, the renovation work was started by Solidarités International with the Regideso, and is going on today. The Foundation Veolia Environnement brings technical and financial support.
At Uvira, located in South Kivu and second target town for this program, studies and works are in progress.
Faced with the scale of the problem in the other towns (Bunia, Goma, Baraka, Bukavu, Bukama and Kasenga) and other regions, international experts and players are getting involved.
To stimulate the plea for grant search and to coordinate actions, the Veolia Environnement Foundation created in 2010, alongside its partners, an international alliance against choléra : Global Alliance Against Cholera. This consortium of public and private players wants to integrate the various approaches of the program partners in a comprehensive strategy, while jointly gathering the funds and skills necessary to eradicate cholera permanently in RDC.
