Ebola epidemic: WHO declares global emergency

Ebola epidemic: WHO declares global emergency

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12763366_m featureFacing the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus, with almost 1,000 fatalities in West Africa, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency on Friday, demanding an extraordinary response — only the third such declaration of its kind since regulations permitting such alarms were adopted in 2007.

Dr. Margaret F. C. Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency, told a news conference at its Geneva headquarters, “This is the largest, most severe, most complex outbreak in the nearly four-decade history of the disease.”

“I am declaring the current outbreak of the Ebola virus disease a public health emergency of international concern,” she said. “Countries affected to date simply don’t have the capacity to manage an outbreak on this scale on their own.”

Dr. Keiji Fukuda, head of health security for the health organization, said that “things will get worse for a while,” and that “we are fully prepared for addressing this for some months.”

The W.H.O. urged all nations where the disease is spreading to declare an emergency, to screen all people leaving at international airports, seaports and land crossings, and to prevent travel by anyone suspected of having the Ebola virus.

The declaration was apparently intended to display a more aggressive stance by the health organization. In the past, it has often bent to pressure from member countries, demanding that there be no consequences even as epidemics have raged inside their borders and sometimes slipped over them.

The organization stopped short of saying there should be general international travel or trade bans, but acknowledged that the outbreak, already in its sixth month, was far from being contained.

One major international medical organization, Doctors Without Borders, responded to the statement with a renewed call for a “massive deployment” of health specialists to the stricken countries. “Lives are being lost because the response is too slow,” it said.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

According to figures released by the health organization on Friday, the virus is thought to have killed 961 people since March. Most of the cases are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, but 13 cases have also been reported in Nigeria, including two deaths, after a person brought the disease there by plane from Liberia.

The total of confirmed, probable and suspected cases, including the fatalities, in the region was 1,779.

Unlike previous outbreaks of the Ebola virus, which had occurred in isolated areas, the West African epidemic erupted in areas with more traffic, trade and freedom of movement, facilitating transmission of the disease. The affected countries also have extremely weak health infrastructures and lacked the capacity to respond effectively when the outbreak occurred.

iHLS received the updated document published by the director of Public Health Services at the Israeli Ministry of Health, Itamar Grotto, after an extensive review of the current outbreak. The document contains comprehensive guidelines regarding the treatment of suspected carriers and known patients: Diagnosis methods, typical areas in which outbreaks commonly occur, clinical symptoms, treatment of suspected carriers, the various medical examinations involved and the safety of the medical teams.

Since this is an epidemiological scenario, the Ministry of Health monitors the data published around the world and is in contact with every relevant factor, including the World Health Organization and centers for disease control in Europe and the U.S.

In addition, the Ministry of Health published a series of recommendations and guidelines for the public regarding visiting countries affected by the outbreak or arriving in Israel after visiting the same countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). As of August 8 2014 there are no known Ebola carriers or patients in Israel.