The Ebola outbreak in Congo is a public health emergency of international concern, according to the WHO

"The fight has been going on for a year now," committee chair Robert Steffen said Wednesday at a news conference.

"They make their decision by consensus," she said. "They will also define what this international public health emergency should be of concern to other countries, so they will have to make recommendations to the affected country, the Congo, to these countries and make recommendations to neighboring countries, the most vulnerable. will also have recommendations for the rest of the world. "

The consensus and recommendations of the committee are then presented to the Director-General of WHO, who decides whether or not to agree and adopts the decisions of the committee.

Global health emergencies are usually only announced in what the WHO calls "extraordinary" circumstances, and this is only the fifth such statement.

WHO's decision to declare a public health emergency of international concern will not significantly alter the DRC's strategy to fight the deadly epidemic, said the country's health minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga.

"There is only one strategy for fighting the Ebola virus," Kalenga said Thursday at a press conference in Goma. "It's a series of actions around each case, we need to identify the contacts, vaccinate, disinfect and respect them, as well as respect the general hygiene rules." These measures help contain the epidemic. change is the context. "

Funding is insufficient

WHO field managers were disappointed by the amount of pledges that were insufficient to meet their needs – for several months.

Although serious, this epidemic has not yet received the level of global attention that the outbreak in West Africa has generated, where more than 11,000 people have died. There has also been no significant spread outside the DRC – something according to health authorities has led to a complacent form of donors.

This complacency was also compounded by the belief that an experimental vaccine would help stop this epidemic in the first weeks of the response, according to several UN officials and NGOs with whom CNN met in the field in June.

WHO is currently developing its fourth strategic plan to try to eliminate the epidemic, claiming that it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

This is why, in part, many public health experts have specifically called for emergency designation several months ago – in order to refocus attention and release the much needed funds.

The humanitarian group Mercy Corps hopes that the WHO statement "will result in urgent and concrete action, including increased funding from international donors," said Laura Miller, Acting National Director of Mercy Corps for the DRC , in a written statement after the announcement of the WHO.

"Every day, women, men and children are dying of the Ebola virus and it is too easy to forget that the ever-increasing number of cases is about people," she said in part. "The WHO statement suggests that neighboring countries may react by blocking or restricting access to borders in such a way as to restrict trade, which would be devastating for the economy of the world. region and would have repercussions on the food security of a large number of people. "

More than 1600 dead

This case has raised fears that the virus will spread beyond the porous border into a still uninfected Rwanda – something that health experts are desperately trying to prevent. Health officials and humanitarian organizations are fearing the arrival of Ebola in Goma for months and are working to prepare for this eventuality, which partly explains why the case has was immediately arrested and isolated.

Congolese Health Minister Kalenga said Thursday that the newly confirmed Ebola case of a person traveling to Goma was a pastor, in the same way as other recent cases. Thus, he said, the practice of placing hands on people during religious ceremonies was a factor in spreading the disease. He called on pastors to be responsible and put an end to this practice.

The Congolese Ministry of Health released Wednesday on its official Twitter account a statement in which he accepted the World Health Organization's designation that the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo "is now a public health emergency of international concern".

The statement cited that the first difficulty in containing the epidemic is the result of "development problems" in the region and a "fragile health system".

The ministry added that "the government is studying measures" to prevent people considered high-risk "from spreading the epidemic in the region".

The virus is transmitted between humans through direct contact with the body fluids of an infected person, including infected blood, stool or vomit, or through direct contact with contaminated objects, such as needles and syringes.

Yet, hope takes the form of progress in research. Experimental treatments and vaccines have been used in Congo. To date, at least 585 patients have recovered from the disease and more than 133,000 vaccines have been administered, which, according to many, has helped to limit the spread of the epidemic.

The experimental vaccine rVSV-ZEBOV, manufactured by Merck, was approved by the ethics committee of the Congo Ministry of Health for use in the country in May 2018.

At its previous meeting on Friday, the Emergency Committee recommended all countries at risk to put in place the necessary authorizations to use experimental drugs and vaccines as part of their preparation.