A group of international public health experts has urged the World Health Organization to declare an Ebola emergency in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It wants the W.H.O to consider Congo’s Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency.
On Monday the experts wrote in the Lancet that such a move should help put together “high-level political, financial, and technical support to address the Ebola outbreak that started last May”.
Lead author Lawrence Gostin, from Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law said “The epidemic is not under control, and has a high risk of spread to the region, perhaps globally.”
“Taking bold measures to prevent the spread of the disease in this country where violence is prevalent, and a famine is predicted, is critical to preventing a humanitarian disaster,” Gostin said.
The World Health Organization says the current Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo is getting out of control.
The global body has said that the outbreak is “now second largest historically. A sad toll, with too many families losing loved ones.”
Over 426 cases including more than 245 deaths have been recorded. Fighting the outbreak in DR Congo has also become a challenge due to conflict.
The DR Congo outbreak only comes second to the outbreak recorded in West Africa. That outbreak was between 2013 and 2016 killing over 11,000 people.
The Ebola virus is transmitted by bats. It was named after the Ebola River when it was detected in DRC.
Ebola leads to internal and external bleeding which can cause damage done to blood vessels.
Source: Africafeeds.com
