Ebola virus outbreak: The four pillars of Red Cross intervention

In recent weeks, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is mounting an even more intense response in West African communities where the Ebola epidemic is spreading or where the risk of an outbreak is highest.

This includes: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria for large-scale response and Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, Benin and Togo for Ebola preparedness and control measures.

Jean-Pierre Taschereau, Head of Emergency Operations for the IFRC, recently returned from Guinea, where he was helping lead humanitarian efforts in dealing with the Ebola outbreak. There are currently 600 trained volunteers in Guinea engaging at a community level through social mobilization activities, care for the deceased and contact tracing.

As Jean-Pierre (JP) describes, the IFRC is working to contain the outbreak of Ebola through four pillars of intervention: education, containment, contact tracing and psychosocial support.

JP says psychosocial support is a key component of this response for all involved in this outbreak.

“Not only to the people who have survived the virus and their families,” JP says, “but also to the volunteers and health staff in general who unfortunately are often stigmatized because of the fact they’re working with the disease.”