World Health Organization reported Thursday in a weekly Ebola bulletin that 57 health zones in Congo had reported new cases of the disease over the last three weeks. ( Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/Associated Press )The Ebola outbreak in Congo announced on Aug. 1 has become the second-deadliest in history, behind the West African one from 2014-16 that killed more than 11,300 people. Trish Newport, Doctors Without Borders’ representative in Goma, a major crossroads city close to the outbreak, said declaring a global emergency wouldn’t necessarily help stop the epidemic. Previous global emergencies have been declared for the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the emergence of Zika virus in the Americas and the international attempt to eradicate polio. WHO was criticized for not declaring the 2014 Ebola outbreak an international emergency until nearly 1,000 people had died and the disease had spilled across borders.

Source: thestar April 12, 2019 11:50 UTC