LONDON – The World Health Organization on Friday
declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health
emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread.
It is the largest and longest outbreak ever
recorded of Ebola, which has a death rate of about 50 percent and has so far
killed at least 932 people. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu
pandemic in 2009 and for polio in May.
The WHO chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, said the
announcement is "a clear call for international solidarity" although
she acknowledged that many countries would probably not have any Ebola cases.
"Countries affected to date simply do not
have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their
own," Chan said at a news conference in Geneva. "I urge the
international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis
possible."
The agency had convened an expert committee this
week to assess the severity of the continuing epidemic.
The current outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in
March and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a suspected
cluster in Nigeria. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola.
The impact of the WHO declaration is unclear; the
declaration about polio doesn't yet seem to have slowed the spread of virus.
"Statements won't save lives," said Dr.
Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders. "For
weeks, (we) have been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and
public health response is desperately needed. ... Lives are being lost because
the response is too slow."
In the United States, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention have already elevated their Ebola response to the
highest level and have recommended against traveling to West Africa. On
Thursday, CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden told a Congressional hearing that the
current outbreak is set to sicken more people than all previous outbreaks of
the disease combined.
"I don't know what the advantage is of
declaring an international emergency," said Dr. David Heymann, who
directed WHO's response to the SARS outbreak and is now a professor at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
"This could bring in more foreign aid but we
don't know that yet," he said.
Other experts hoped the declaration would send
more health workers to West Africa.
"The situation is very critical and
different from what we've seen before," said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of
virology at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease.
"There are so many locations with transmission popping up and we just need
more people on the ground."
WHO did not recommend any travel or trade bans
but said people who had close contact with Ebola patients should not travel
internationally. For countries with Ebola, WHO issued various recommendations,
including exit screening at international airports and border crossings to spot
potential cases. It also discouraged mass gatherings.
WHO said countries without Ebola should heighten
their surveillance and treat any suspected cases as a health emergency.
This week, two of the worst-hit Ebola countries
-- Liberia and Sierra Leone -- brought in troops to enforce quarantines and
stop people infected with the disease from traveling. Liberian President Ellen
Johnson Sirleaf said no one with a fever would be allowed in or out of the
country and warned some civil liberties could be suspended if needed to bring
the virus under control.
Chan said while extraordinary measures might be
necessary to contain the outbreak, it is important to recognize civil rights.
"We need to respect the dignity of people
and inform them why these measures are being taken," she said.
Sourced: Fox News, London
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