WHO Declares Ebola in the DRC a Public Health Emergency

By IDSE News Staff

The World Health Organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

“It is time for the world to take notice and redouble our efforts. We need to work together in solidarity with the DRC to end this outbreak and build a better health system,” said Dr. Tedros. “Extraordinary work has been done for almost a year under the most difficult circumstances. We all owe it to these responders—coming from not just WHO but also government, partners and communities—to shoulder more of the burden.”

The outbreak in the DRC is occurring in a region where there are armed conflict, outbreaks of violence and other problems that complicate public health response activities and increase the risk for disease spread both locally within DRC and to neighboring countries.

The declaration followed a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee for Ebola virus disease in the DRC. The committee cited recent developments in the outbreak in making its recommendation, including the first confirmed case in Goma, a city of almost 2 million people on the border with Rwanda, and the gateway to the rest of DRC and the world.

This was the fourth meeting of the emergency committee since the outbreak was declared last August.

The committee is frustrated about delays in funding that have constrained the response. The group also reinforced the need to protect the livelihoods of the people most affected by the outbreak, by keeping transport routes and borders open. It is essential to avoid the punitive economic consequences of travel and trade restrictions on affected communities.

“It is important that the world follows these recommendations. It is also crucial that states do not use the PHEIC as an excuse to impose trade or travel restrictions, which would have a negative impact on the response and on the lives and livelihoods of people in the region,” said Professor Robert Steffen, the chair of the emergency committee.

Since it was declared almost a year ago, the outbreak has been classified as a grade 3 emergency by the WHO, triggering the highest level of mobilization from that organization. The United Nations also has recognized the seriousness of the emergency by activating the Humanitarian System-Wide Scale-Up protocol to support the response to Ebola.

In recommending a PHEIC designation, the committee made specific points related to this outbreak.

“This is about mothers, fathers and children—too often, entire families are stricken. At the heart of this are communities and individual tragedies,” said Dr. Tedros. “The PHEIC should not be used to stigmatize or penalize the very people who are most in need of our help.”

“We appreciate the strong response of Dr. Tedros and WHO leadership to this outbreak, yet it is clear that much more remains to be done. The United States government has already played a vital role in supporting the response in the DRC and neighboring nations, and will continue this support until we have put an end to the outbreak,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.

“Make no mistake, the challenges to stopping the Ebola outbreak are growing steeper and the public health response will unquestionably be longer,” said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, MD. “CDC stands ready to support our U.S. government and international partners in limiting the spread of Ebola, improving the human condition, and bringing this outbreak to an end.”

As part of the Administration’s effort, CDC experts are working with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team on the ground in the DRC and the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa (the capital city) to support the Congolese and international response. They are providing technical assistance and expertise in disease tracking, case investigation, contact tracing, case management, infection prevention and control, safe burials, community engagement and social mobilization, risk communication and health education, behavioral science, laboratory testing, border health, data management, vaccination campaigns and logistics.

To rapidly identify cases and prevent further spread of Ebola, the CDC is working with the U.S. Embassy in DRC to pre-position CDC staff in Goma to rapidly respond to hot spots where the security situation is permissible. As of July 16, 2019, CDC staff have conducted 311 deployments to the DRC, neighboring countries and WHO headquarters. The CDC has 246 permanent staff in the three high-risk countries bordering the outbreak (South Sudan, Rwanda and Uganda), including 43 in DRC. DRC has more than 150 graduates of the CDC’s Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program who are playing a central role in this public health response.

The CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center on Thursday, June 13, 2019, to support the interagency response to the outbreak in eastern DRC, allowing it to increase operational support for the response to meet the outbreak’s evolving challenges.

There are no cases of Ebola in the United States, and the current risk is low based on the travel volume and travel patterns from the area of the outbreak to the United States, the CDC said.