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The World Health Organization decided on Wednesday not to declare the Ebola epidemic in the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo torn apart by the international health emergency war.
This Ebola epidemic, the seventh in history, with 216 cases and 139 deaths since July, has seen a clear increase in recent days, after the retaliatory efforts were limited by rebel violence, political instability and resistance of the community. WHO's Emergency Response Officer, Peter Salama, had previously told HuffPost that it was the "most difficult context" for dealing with an Ebola outbreak – never .
The WHO emergency committee has ruled that the epidemic was of great concern to the region, but not to the world, said committee chair Robert Steffen on Wednesday. Although WHO currently considers the risk of spreading internationally to be low, he says the risk of its spread at the national and regional levels is very high. The Committee also did not wish that a potential emergency declaration would affect travel and trade, which in their view would impede emergency response.
"We are optimistic that this outbreak, like that of May, will be under control within a reasonable time," Steffen said.
A WHO statement on a so-called public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) would have aimed to attract the attention of the world and hopefully to spark a increased international response to a health crisis with global consequences. Since the creation of the barometer in 2007, the WHO has declared a PHEIC only four times: for swine flu in 2009, polio and Ebola in 2014 and Zika in 2016.
The WHO also decided not to declare PHEIC during the latest Ebola outbreak, which ultimately killed 33 people in DRC's Equateur province earlier this year, due to rapid response and deployment. an experimental vaccine. However, this epidemic did not occur in a war zone.
"The [declaration of a PHEIC would have] has drawn attention to people who otherwise have not noticed the growing challenges in the DRC around the Ebola virus, "said Dr. Thomas Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, HuffPost.
Last week, the WHO said it needed less than $ 33 million to end the epidemic by January, costs that have increased with the need to enhance the security and geographic spread of the disease. . However, on Wednesday, the director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the international partners had been generous and that he felt that the lack of PHEIC statement would not affect their commitments .
But when it comes to the United States, Inglesby wonders if that would have motivated the country to become more involved.
"This kind of announcement at the highest level would be [have been] a catalyst to bring more technical expertise and leadership to the US side, "said Inglesby.
As HuffPost says for the first time last week, Inglesby is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get more involved, as the CDC currently does not have any members of its team in it. epicenter of Beni. A spokeswoman for the CDC said there is currently an Ebola expert advisor, a vaccine expert and a border health expert in the capital, Kinshasa, as well as staff deployed in the border country in Uganda. , where the risk of spread nationwide mobile populations there.
"IIn terms of field staff, the United States does not participate as it has in the past, "Inglesby said, citing security concerns. "Tit is also a risk of not participating and not contributing to what the CDC leaders have been able to contribute. "
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