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 Congo's epidemic is the second worst worldwide since West Africa's
Ebola outbreak in 2014-16, with 2,084 cases and 1,405 deaths since
being declared in August. The WHO said on Thursday that two people
had died in Uganda having arrived with the disease from Congo.
A panel of 13 independent medical experts on the WHO's Emergency
Committee (EC) were meeting from midday to evaluate the latest
evidence and whether the epidemic constitutes a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
Such a decision would lead to boosting public health measures,
funding and resources, and could include recommendations on trade
and travel, academic experts and aid groups said.
"Will @WHO declare global emergency for #Ebola? I predict yes. My
sense is @DrTedros will call PHEIC if #EC recs it. He understands
depth of crisis," Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at
Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., who is not on
the panel, said in a tweet.
People are still dying outside of Ebola treatment centers - exposing
their families to the disease - and many don't appear on lists of
known contacts being monitored, he said.
"Vaccines alone can't work if community hides cases due to distrust.
Violence persists. We are in this for the long haul," Gostin said,
referring to deadly attacks on Congo health facilities.
The panel, which twice before decided not to declare an emergency,
will make recommendations to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus who takes the final decision.
Only 4 emergencies have been declared in the past decade: the H1
virus that caused an influenza pandemic (2009), West Africa's Ebola
outbreak, polio (2014) and Zika virus (2016).
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SECOND WORST EPIDEMIC
Top WHO official Mike Ryan said on Thursday there had been no known
person-to-person spread of Ebola in Uganda and that there were
encouraging signs in Congo, with the disease's spread slowing in
cities of Butembo and Katwa. However it the virus was now entrenched
in rural areas including Mabalako, he said.
"But these can be very volatile, these can go up and down week to
week. So we have to be careful looking at one week of data and
declaring victory.
"We have a hell of a long way to go in this response," he told
Reuters.
The WHO, in a statement overnight, said that given all three
confirmed cases in Uganda belong to a single family cluster, the
level of preparedness and experience of Ugandan authorities to
manage previous Ebola outbreaks, and their rapid detection of cases
in a limited geographical area, "the overall level of risk at
national level is assessed as moderate".
"However, the overall regional risk posed by the outbreak in DRC
remains very high. The overall risk at international level remains
low," it said.
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global medical
charity, said the WHO should declare a public health emergency of
international concern.
"Doing so would raise the levels of international political support,
which has been seriously lacking so far, show strong support for DRC
and neighboring countries and WHO, and release more resources,
including finance, healthcare workers, enhanced logistics, security
and infrastructure," he said.
(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editing by Raissa
Kasolowsky)
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