The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern, eleven months after it first began. More than 1,600 people have died from the virus, making it the second biggest Ebola outbreak in recorded history. This is only the fifth time the WHO has made this declaration: the others were for swine flu in 2009, a 2014 polio outbreak, the west Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the Zika virus epidemic in 2016. Making the announcement, chairman of the WHO’s emergency committee Robert Steffen said it was dealing with a “tremendously complex situation”. He said Ebola response workers were regularly attacked and beaten by members of the local community.

Source: The Irish Times July 17, 2019 18:22 UTC