Ebola Outbreak In DRC Declared Public Health Emergency By World Health Organisation

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern.

According to the BBC, this has only been done four times before, including for an Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000.

WHO defines a public health emergency of international concern as 'an extraordinary event' that constitutes a 'public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease' and 'to potentially require a coordinated international response'.

Since the first case was detected in the city of Goma, the outbreak in the DRC has killed more than 1,600 people.

"The fight is ongoing for a full year now," Robert Steffen, chairman of the committee, said during a press conference today (Wednesday 17 July).

The outbreak is the second largest in history, and started in August 2018.

PA

Dr. Margaret Harris, WHO's communication lead on the Ebola emergency in DRC, said in a video posted to Twitter ahead of the meeting: "This emergency in Congo has been going on for almost a year and is a very, very serious emergency and has been treated as our highest level of emergency since the beginning - but the difference that's going on with this committee is, do we need to tell the rest of the world to start taking measures? And if so, what measures are we going to tell them to do?"

She added: "They make their decision as a consensus," .

"They will also lay down what under that public health emergency of international concern other countries need to do. So they will have recommendations for the affected country - that's Congo. They will have recommendations for the neighboring countries, those most at risk. They will also have recommendations for the rest of the world."

The outbreak is currently affecting two provinces in DRC - North Kivu and Ituri.

"We are one year into the outbreak and the situation is not getting any better," Trish Newport, from the charity MSF, told the BBC.

"It's a complex environment with a long history of violence, of conflict, so there's a lot of mistrust of foreigners from outside the area.

"We have to build ties and connections with the community so they trust us."

More to follow.

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

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