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DR Congo Ebola outbreak declared public health emergency | |
(32 minutes later) | |
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a public health emergency of international concern. | |
But it stressed borders should not be closed, adding that the risk of the disease spreading outside the region was not high. | |
The outbreak in the DRC has killed more than 1,600 people. | The outbreak in the DRC has killed more than 1,600 people. |
This week, the first case was detected in Goma, home to more than a million. | |
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva that he had accepted the recommendations of a committee of experts which stressed there should be no restrictions on travel or trade, and no entry screening of passengers at ports or airports outside the immediate region. | |
The most recent serious Ebola outbreak before this one, in West Africa, killed more than 11,000 people. | |
How bad is the situation in DRC? | |
The outbreak, the second largest in history, started in August 2018 and is affecting two provinces in DRC - North Kivu and Ituri. | |
More than 2,500 people have been infected and two-thirds of them have died. | |
It took 224 days for the number of cases to reach 1,000, but just a further 71 days to reach 2,000. | |
About 12 new cases are being reported every day. | |
Isn't there a vaccine? | |
Yes. | |
It is 99% effective and more than 161,000 people have been given it. | |
However, everybody is not vaccinated - only those who come into direct contact with an Ebola patient, and people who come into contact with them. | |
The vaccine was developed during the epidemic in West Africa and has been available throughout the latest outbreak. | |
Why hasn't the outbreak been brought under control? | |
Tackling the disease has been complicated by conflict in the region. | |
Since January, there have been 198 attacks against healthcare workers or Ebola treatment facilities leading to seven deaths and 58 injuries. | |
Another major problem has been distrust of healthcare workers leading to about a third of deaths being in the community rather than at a specialist Ebola treatment centre. | |
It means those people are not seeking treatment and risk spreading the disease to neighbours and relatives. | |
There has also been difficulty tracking the spread of the virus. | |
A significant number of cases are coming as a surprise as those affected have not come into contact with known Ebola cases. | |
"We are one year into the outbreak and the situation is not getting any better," said Trish Newport, from the charity MSF. | |
"It's a complex environment with a long history of violence, of conflict, so there's a lot of mistrust of foreigners from outside the area. | |
"We have to build ties and connections with the community so they trust us." | |
Could the disease spread further? | |
The WHO says the risk to neighbouring countries is "very high". | |
Uganda has already had some isolated cases including two people - a five-year-old boy and his 50-year-old grandmother - who died from the disease. Rwanda is also at risk. | |
This week a priest died from Ebola in the city of Goma, which is home to more than a million people. The city is a major transport hub and sits on the DR Congo-Rwanda border. | |
The WHO said cases there were a "game-changer", however, there have been no reported cases of the disease spreading in Goma. | |
Is the world doing enough to help? | |
The WHO has been clear for months that it has insufficient money to tackle the problem. | |
It had estimated that it needed $98m to tackle the outbreak between February and July. Yet it faced a shortfall of $54m. | |
What is Ebola? |