WHO says Ebola outbreak not "pandemic emergency"
The risk of the Ebola epidemic is "high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level," and the situation is not a "pandemic emergency," the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
Speaking at a press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that a WHO Emergency Committee met on Tuesday and agreed with his earlier assessment that the Ebola situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), but is not a pandemic emergency.
On Sunday, Tedros declared the PHEIC for the Ebola outbreak in the two countries, marking the first time a WHO chief had done so without first convening an Emergency Committee.
So far, 51 cases have been confirmed in the northern provinces of Ituri and North Kivu of the DRC, said Tedros, adding that the scale of the epidemic in the DRC is much larger.
