WHO Maintains Health Emergency In DR Congo After New Ebola Cases Surface

Muhammad Irfan Published April 15, 2020 | 02:51 PM

The World Health Organization has extended its global emergency for the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the emergence of three new cases of the Ebola Virus Disease 40 days after the last known infection, the WHO's Ebola Emergency Committee announced in a press release on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th April, 2020) The World Health Organization has extended its global emergency for the Democratic Republic of the Congo after the emergence of three new cases of the Ebola Virus Disease 40 days after the last known infection, the WHO's Ebola Emergency Committee announced in a press release on Tuesday.

"The Committee agreed that while there is a low risk of international spread, they consider this event to still constitute a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the IHR (2005), requiring international coordination and support," the release said. "The [WHO] Director-General accepted the Committee's assessment and on 14 April 2020 maintained the EVD outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)."

As of April 13, three confirmed cases, including two deaths, occurred in Beni city in the last four days. The cases were reported 40 days after the second negative test of the last previously confirmed patient.

DRC, WHO, and partners are investigating the infection source, validating the reported alerts, and conducting public health measures for confirmed cases and contacts, the release said.

The release also provided an update of the Ebola epidemic that began in August 2018. As of 8 April 2020, a total of 3,453 EVD cases were reported from 29 health zones in the eastern DRC, including 3 310 confirmed and 143 probable cases of which 2 273 cases died, the release added.

Health workers had been able to quash the epidemic by tracing contacts with infected individuals and inoculating those contacts with an experimental vaccine, the release said.

About 6,000 doses of the vaccine are available in Beni, however officials fear flight restrictions do to the coronavirus pandemic will hamper the vaccine pipeline if the new cases trigger a second epidemic-scale outbreak, according to the release. The disease has infected nearly 3,500 people with an overall mortality rate of 66 percent.