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The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided not to declare a global health emergency in response to the current Ebola epidemic in Africa, despite the large number of deaths each day.
The epidemic began in August 2018 and is to date the second most deadly outbreak of Ebola in history. On Friday, 1,206 people were infected and 764 people were killed. The number of cases has been steadily increasing over the last three weeks, with 18 new cases of Ebola diagnosed on Wednesday and 20 new cases diagnosed on Thursday, which also resulted in the death of thirteen people from Ebola.
The WHO convened Friday in Geneva a group of emergency experts meeting urgently to determine whether the Ebola outbreak, currently in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), should justify increased international intervention.
"Although the rise in the number of people in some areas is causing great concern, the epidemic has not spread internationally," said Professor Robert Steffen, chairman of the committee. Emergency, when calling reporters on Friday afternoon.
Although not declaring a global health emergency, Steffen stressed that this decision "does not mean that we can relax and relax."
This is the tenth epidemic of Ebola in the DRC in the last 40 years and 29% of cases are in children under 18 years of age. A global emergency declaration on health would allow WHO to raise more funds, an absolute necessity to fight the spread of the virus. But the WHO panel refused to do it.
As Stat News, a health website, reports, one of the reasons the current outbreak has not been declared a health emergency is that it has not spread to other countries yet. This is the case after today's decision, which will surely disappoint a number of doctors fighting the virus in the DRC.
Public health officials in the DRC are facing the proliferation of false information, and the oddest to the idea that the Ebola crisis is simply a way to control people. According to a recent survey conducted for Lancet Infectious Diseases, about 36 percent of DRC residents thought the Ebola virus did not even exist. And about 2/3 of people said they would not take a hypothetical Ebola vaccine.
The pharmaceutical company Merck manufactures an experimental vaccine against the Ebola virus called V920. Since last week, Merck has shipped nearly 145,000 doses of what it calls the "experimental vaccine" to the World Health Organization. An estimated 96,000 people were vaccinated during this latest outbreak of Ebola. Merck hopes to donate and ship approximately 100,000 doses in the coming months.
Trish Newport, a representative of Doctors Without Borders, told The Associated Press that 75% of people infected with the Ebola virus during the current outbreak have "no obvious connection to their previous patients, "which means doctors in the field do not know how the virus spreads. And it's a huge problem.
Until now, the current outbreak is less lethal than that of 2014 until 2016, infecting nearly 30,000 people and making more than 11,000 deaths. As noted by the AP, the WHO was criticized during the latest outbreak for failing to declare earlier a global health inventory. It is likely that this decision will provoke the same criticisms.
Selected Image: Associated Press
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