The World Health Organization (WHO) determined for the third time that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is not a “public health emergency of international concern”.
WHO Secretary-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the risk for cross-border spread of the disease was still very high but did not constitute a “global threat”.
It does represent an emergency in DRC and the region, WHO added.
During the announcement on Friday, the acting chair of the emergency committee, Dr Preben Aavitsland, said the committee was disappointed that WHO and the affected countries “have not received the funding and resources needed for this outbreak”.
“Less than one-third of the resources needed are available,” WHO said.
Dr Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said that Ugandan authorities had identified 98 contacts potentially exposed to the virus of which 10 were determined to be “high risk”.
WHO said that “at-risk countries should improve their preparedness for detecting and managing exported cases, as Uganda has done”.
Aavitsland said there would have been risks in declaring the outbreak a global emergency and determined that the consequences could have included “restrictions on travel and trade” and “border closures” that could “severely harm the economy in the Democratic Republic of Congo”.
“This is not a global emergency,” he said, but rather a “severe emergency” in the DRC.
