The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to be a public health emergency of international concern, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The announcement was made following a meeting of the WHO’s International Health Regulations Emergency Committee in the Swiss city of Geneva on Wednesday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the WHO’s assessment was that the risk of spread of Ebola was high nationally and regionally and low globally.
“As I said yesterday, as long as there is a single case of Ebola in an area as insecure and unstable as eastern DR Congo, the potential remains for a much larger epidemic,” Ghebreyesus said.
Ghebreyesus also expressed optimism that the deadly Ebola outbreak would soon come to an end but warned that the world must be alert to prevent another one.
“Nonetheless, the signs are extremely positive in the eastern DR Congo and I hope that by the time the Emergency Committee reconvenes, we will be able to declare an end to the outbreak. But even as we near the end of the Ebola outbreak, we must act now to prevent the next one,” Ghebreyesus said.
Ghebreyesus added that he will travel to the Congolese capital Kinshasa for discussions with President Felix Tshisekedi and other senior ministers on how to strengthen the DR Congo’s health system and protect and promote the health of its people.
Ebola is highly infectious and spread through bodily fluids. The current outbreak, largely confined to the DR Congo, has killed more than 2,200 people. This makes it the second deadliest after the calamitous outbreak in West Africa in 2016.
The response to the outbreak has been hampered by a lack of trust in the government and attacks by militia on health workers.
The WHO added that attention in the DR Congo also needs to be focused on the outbreak of measles, which has killed more than 6,300 people in a shorter period of time, and cholera.
The WHO said the DR Congo continues to need support to combat infectious diseases as well as to strengthen its health system.
