WHO considering global health emergency over Congo’s Ebola outbreak
There is risk of the virus spreading from northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo into Uganda and Rwanda
The World Health Organisation said its experts will meet Wednesday to determine whether an Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo constitutes a global health emergency.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has convened “an emergency committee” on the current outbreak in DRC’s violence-torn North Kivu region, which has killed 135 people since August, the UN health agency said.
“The committee will meet on October 17 in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” a statement said.
In the WHO’s parlance, “a public health emergency of international concern” is an “extraordinary event” in which a disease may spread across borders and requires a vigorous international response.
The agency first invoked the emergency mechanism in 2009 when a new strain of influenza, so-called H1N1 swine flu, emerged.
It was also declared twice in 2014, when polio re-emerged after the disease was nearly eradicated, and after an Ebola epidemic struck three West African countries.