The Ebola crisis in eastern Congo has the World Health Organization on alert—but not in panic mode. The agency on Wednesday said the outbreak, centered in the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, poses a high risk within the Democratic Republic of Congo and across the region, but a low risk globally. So far, 51 infections have been confirmed in the DRC, along with two in Uganda's capital and one in a US doctor who has been transferred to Germany for treatment.
WHO's chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says the true scale inside Congo is likely much larger, with nearly 600 suspected cases and 139 suspected deaths. "We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected," he adds. Tedros on Sunday labeled the situation a "public health emergency of international concern," triggering heightened responses worldwide. But an emergency committee that met Tuesday concluded the outbreak still falls short of "pandemic emergency" status, reports CBS News.
Investigators believe the virus has been spreading for at least a couple of months and are racing to trace contacts and isolate cases. Responding to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's criticism that WHO "was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately," Tedros suggested the comments stem from a misunderstanding of the agency's role under international health rules, emphasizing that WHO backs national responses rather than replaces them.
The BBC reports it's Congo's 17th known outbreak of Ebola, but involves the much rarer Bundibugyo strain, which was last seen more than a decade ago. In the two previous Bundibugyo outbreaks, about a third of those infected died.
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