An Ebola outbreak in the North Kivu province became the second-largest in recorded history. Ebola symptoms cause extreme gastric distress, including diarrhea and vomiting, which rapidly deplete the body of vital water and electrolytes. Dehydration, in turn, can amplify inflammation and contribute to bleeding that many Ebola patients experience. Here, dehydration can be deadly.
In 2019, DripDrop began a long-term partnership with International Medical Corps to respond to the Ebola crisis in Democratic Republic of the Congo. 55,000 sticks of DripDrop (and counting) have helped both patients and aid workers fight deadly dehydration here. These efforts have saved lives during the 2018-2020 North Kivu outbreak and the ongoing Équateur outbreak.