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Ebola Outbreak Declared Global Health Emergency

posted by janrinok on Thursday July 18 2019, @02:32PM   Printer-friendly

Ebola Outbreak Declared Global Health Emergency

upstart writes:

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Ebola outbreak declared global health emergency

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo a "public health emergency of international concern". 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.

The outbreak in DR Congo has killed more than 1,600 people. 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. He said he accepted recommendations there should be no restrictions on travel or trade, and no entry screening of passengers at ports or airports outside the immediate region.

"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.

WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak an International Emergency

From WHO declares Ebola outbreak an international emergency

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the nearly year-long Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

The outbreak was declared on August 1, 2018 and has tallied 2,512 cases and 1,676 deaths. So far, it's centered in the DRC's North Kivu and Ituri provinces, which are on the eastern side of the country bordering South Sudan, Uganda, and Rwanda.

The declaration Wednesday follows the spread of Ebola to Goma, a DRC city of nearly 2 million people at the border with Rwanda that acts as hub of regional transportation. On Sunday, health workers there confirmed the city's first case in a 47-year-old pastor who had just arrived from Butembo, a DRC city that has struggled with the outbreak since last December.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies welcomed the move.

Previously: Measles is Killing More People in the DRC than Ebola-and Faster

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:36PM (4 children)

    by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:36PM (#868560) Journal

    TheSome locals have been attacking health workers trying to stop the outbreak in some locations. They don't want our help. Some persons do not understand why the workers are there and what they are doing and are scared and we do not take enough efforts to talk to them, just like the OP is scared and talking out their ass. We should just shoot down any planes flying out or sink any ships trying to leave until Ebola burns itself out, because we are even more scared and choosing to be stupid and ignorant and do not want to educate ourselves.

    We can't let the possibility of being called racist to allow Ebola to spread to the rest of the world, even though I am spewing racism right now.. Even though if it were that kind of crisis it would have already jumped to worldwide pandemic some decades ago, but it didn't because of what has been done about it to date can work. The healthcare costs will be extreme if it gets out, even though a person is not infectious until they are experiencing the symptoms of the disease. And this is why it makes total sense to take care of the problem upstream at the source as is being done, instead of a completely unworkable national quarantine which is rather impossible, but I'll just ignore that because racism.

    We don't have enough isolation rooms of sufficient rating in our hospitals to house Ebola victims, because Ebola is a contact virus and does not require pressurization. A regular hospital room will do. The level of impermeable gear healthcare workers require is only out of concern of the seriousness of the virus and because the workers must be exposed to bodily secretions which are infectious. There is concern for healthcare workers that procedures like intubation may momentarily aerosolize the particles, but that does not make it an aerosol virus.

    Tried to FTFY, but just can't get past your racism.

    You are scaremongering. Nothing more. Here is the truth about hospital precautions for Ebola [cdc.gov]. You're welcome.

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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:53PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:53PM (#868574)

    "racism" is a leftist ideological construct

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:02PM

      by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us (6553) on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:02PM (#868586) Journal

      It also exists.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:14PM (#868592)

      So is money, morality, and all things societal.

      Did your mom drink while she was pregnant?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:32AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:32AM (#868794)

      race is a right-wing ideological construct