The World Health Organization (W.H.O) has said it is constituting a panel of experts to review the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The panel on Friday April 12 would decide whether the outbreak deserves to be declared a global public health emergency.
Over 700 people have died from the outbreak since last year with thousands infected.
But the WHO said in a statement on Wednesday that “Though the risk of spread within the country and to neighbouring countries is very high, the risk remains low globally.”
The issue of declaring Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo was a major issue of discussion for the WHO experts in 2018 during an emergency meeting.
Not a new call
This year, some international public health experts urged the World Health Organization to declare an Ebola emergency in the Congo.
The experts at the time 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”.
Should the WHO declare the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern”, that would demand an international response.
The World Health Organization says the current Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo is getting out of control.
But it has also said that the outbreak is “now second largest historically. A sad toll, with too many families losing loved ones.”
Fighting the outbreak amid conflicts
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
