Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How Bad Is The Situation in DR Congo?
How Bad Is The Situation in DR Congo?
How Bad Is The Situation in DR Congo?
The move may encourage wealthy donor countries to provide more cash.
But the WHO stopped short of saying borders should be closed, saying the risk of
the disease spreading outside the region was not high.
This week, the first case was detected in Goma, home to more than a million.
The PHEIC emergency provision is the highest level of alarm the WHO can sound
and has only been used four times previously.
This includes the Ebola epidemic that devastated parts of West Africa from 2014 to
2016, and killed more than 11,000 people.
"It is time for the world to take notice," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
told a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday at which the emergency was
declared.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies welcomed
the move.
"While it does not change the reality on the ground for victims or partners engaged
in the response, we hope it will bring the international attention that this crisis
deserves," it said in a statement.
More than 2,500 people have been infected and two-thirds of them have died.
It took 224 days for the number of cases to reach 1,000, but just a further 71 days
to reach 2,000.
About 12 new cases are being reported every day.
Isn't there a vaccine?
Yes.
It is 99% effective and more than 161,000 people have been given it.
However, everybody is not vaccinated - only those who come into direct contact
with an Ebola patient, and people who come into contact with them.
The vaccine was developed during the epidemic in West Africa and has been
available throughout the latest outbreak.
Since January, there have been 198 attacks against healthcare workers or Ebola
treatment facilities leading to seven deaths and 58 injuries.
Another major problem has been distrust of healthcare workers leading to about a
third of deaths being in the community rather than at a specialist Ebola treatment
centre.
It means those people are not seeking treatment and risk spreading the disease to
neighbours and relatives.
Media captionTreating Ebola in the DR Congo warzone
There has also been difficulty tracking the spread of the virus.
A significant number of cases are coming as a surprise as those affected have not
come into contact with known Ebola cases.
"We are one year into the outbreak and the situation is not getting any better," said
Trish Newport, from the charity MSF.
"We have to build ties and connections with the community so they trust us."
New Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is 'truly frightening'
Large Ebola outbreaks new normal, says WHO
The WHO said cases there were a "game-changer", however, there have been no
reported cases of the disease spreading in Goma.