Community Engagement and Education, Recruitment and Retention of People Recovered from Ebola as Potential Donors for Convalescent Whole Blood and Plasma

Overview

This document provides interim guidance and outlines key considerations to enable national health authorities, programme managers in the ministries of health, blood transfusion services (BTS) and organizations conducting clinical trials, to effectively inform, educate and engage people recovered from Ebola and the communities in which they live, to consider donations of convalescent whole blood (CWB) and convalescent plasma (CP) for use in the treatment of EVD, including for use in clinical trials in the affected countries. Many of the same considerations are also relevant to the acceptability of CWB/CP treatment among patients with EVD. Inappropriate and/or insufficient community awareness, information and engagement can place additional pressure and cause anxiety and distress to these already vulnerable groups.

Well-planned, well-executed and responsive communication strategies will build trust between field operation teams, people recovered from EVD, health service providers, patients with EVD including clinical trial participants and local communities, as well as policy and decision-makers.

This document draws on the WHO global framework for action “Towards 100% voluntary blood donation”, field reports and expert advice, and has adapted the community engagement model developed by WHO and UNICEF for the rapid introduction of Ebola treatment units (ETU) and community care centres (CCC) in the affected countries.

The proposed framework and strategic interventions should serve as generic guidance and be further subject to local adaptation needs.