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Ebola Outbreak Declared Global Health Emergency
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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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 18 2019, @07:04PM (8 children)
> It is believed that between people, Ebola disease spreads only by direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of a person who has developed symptoms of the disease.[48][49][50] Body fluids that may contain Ebola viruses include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine and semen.[4][35] The WHO states that only people who are very sick are able to spread Ebola disease in saliva, and whole virus has not been reported to be transmitted through sweat. Most people spread the virus through blood, feces and vomit....when someone has symptoms of the disease, they are unable to travel without assistance
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease [wikipedia.org]
Why are people coming into contact w blood, vomit, and feces if there are no symptoms?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday July 18 2019, @09:08PM (7 children)
Because the symptoms can be mistaken for typhoid or some gastroenteric condition like some (rarer) forms of food poisoning or (very rarely) flu - most influenzas do not involve vomiting, but still.
All the family member knows is the person is sick. So they take care of them as best they can. And contract the disease.
Maybe the person tries to clean themselves up after diarrhea and the hand accidentally contacts some feces and the person either doesn't see it or doesn't wash their hands well enough. Now everything touched is a possible infector. It is known to spread via fomites (technical name for the host contacting inanimate objects that the receiver then touches).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @04:36AM (6 children)
So ebola is like a bad case of food poisoning. Then it sucks but isn't that bad unless you are in the middle of nowhere without proper access to sanitation and climate control and fluids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @11:45AM (1 child)
I seriously hope that it emerges in the white world soon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 19 2019, @02:38PM
Point #1 If it does you can bet it will be in the densest part of the bluest of liberal areas.
Point #2 This is exactly the kind of thing that demonstrates the racism inherent in the left.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday July 19 2019, @02:21PM (2 children)
Not a great analogy, because food poisioning is usually bacterial although 1/3rd of cases are indeed viral. But true only if the food poisoning has a 50%-90% fatality rate that induces clotting all over the vascular system which can cause systemic hemorrhage. It's not like botulism where if you get the person respiratory support (put them on ventillator when necessary from 2-8 weeks) the person usually pulls through even without antitoxin. And while EVD is a contact disease it isn't just enteral as many food poisonings are, but rather believed to be mucous membrane contact which transmits it IIRC.
There are treatments and vaccines still in development for EVD as well. But the point is, more like many viruses, there is little to be done except supportive care once one has contracted the disease. Supportive care is still very important, but it isn't like there's a magic protocol which makes the virus go away.
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(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday July 19 2019, @02:38PM (1 child)
EVD?
Do you mean Ebola?
I looked up EVD and all I found was External ventricular drain, which is probably not what you meant.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday July 19 2019, @03:31PM
Ebola Virus Disease [who.int], the 'official' name of Ebola now instead of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever. Ebola is a river near where the first cases were identified in 1976.
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(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday July 19 2019, @02:22PM
What I missed saying but implied was that just because one has climate control and fluids does not equal recovery, as it does with many types of food poisoning.
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