New disease epidemics will become the new standard – WHO | New

The world enters a "new phase" where large epidemics of deadly diseases such as the Ebola virus are the "new normal", warned the World Health Organization (WHO).

As a result, the WHO said countries and other agencies should focus on preparing for new deadly epidemics.

The warning comes as the Democratic Republic of Congo attacks the second largest Ebola outbreak in history, just three years after the end of the worst.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials reported that there were 2,025 cases of Ebola resulting in 1,357 deaths.

The largest Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa between 2014 and 2016, when more than 28,616 cases were reported mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and resulted in 11,310 deaths.

According to the WHO, there were 12 outbreaks of Ebola between 2000 and 2010, averaging less than 100 cases.

So why are modern epidemics so much more important?

"We are entering a whole new phase of high impact epidemics and it's not just about Ebola," said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the program, at the British Broadcasting Corporation. health emergencies of WHO.

He said the world "is witnessing a very worrying convergence of risks" that increases the risk of diseases such as Ebola, cholera and yellow fever.

He added that climate change, emerging diseases, rainforest exploitation, large and highly mobile populations, weak governments and conflicts made epidemics more likely and more likely to grow once it was over. they occurred.

Dr. Ryan revealed that WHO was monitoring 160 cases of disease worldwide and that nine of them were third year emergencies (the highest level of WHO emergency). ).

"I do not think we ever had to deal with so many emergencies at the same time. This is a new normality and I do not expect the frequency of these events to diminish. "

As a result, he argued that countries and other organizations should "prepare for and prepare for these epidemics".

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