Ebola in the DRC: A different problem compounded by violence

A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) has been declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) due to Ebola disease from Bundibugyo virus. Non-health-focused factors should be fundamental to how DRC and its partners respond to and recover from the current emergency. Filovirus emergencies are violent in every sense—the disease experience of patients and their caregivers, the tumult in impacted communities, sometimes the physical manifestations of frustration against healthcare services, the fits and starts of concerted response, and the milieu of conflict in which this emergency occurred. Yet, interpersonal and organized violence may contribute to frequency of health emergencies and delays in responding to them. We tend to focus on immediate, direct health needs when managing risks from emerging infectious diseases. Sustained success, though, requires concomitant action on both health and non-health aspects of emergencies and the contexts in which they arise.