{"id":453346,"date":"2026-05-17T10:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T10:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453346\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T10:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T10:49:09","slug":"who-declares-global-health-emergency-over-ebola-outbreak-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453346\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO declares global health emergency over Ebola outbreak \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Health Organisation<\/a> director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared the Ebola<\/a> disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Uganda a public health emergency of international concern after more than 300 suspected cases and 88 deaths.<\/p>\n

In a post on X, the WHO said the outbreak does not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency like the Covid-19<\/a> pandemic, and advised against the closure of international borders.<\/p>\n

The WHO said a laboratory-confirmed case has also been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo\u2019s capital, Kinshasa, which is about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the outbreak\u2019s epicentre in the eastern province of Ituri, suggesting a possible wider spread.<\/p>\n

It said the patient had visited Ituri and other suspected cases have also been reported in North Kivu province, which is one of the Democratic Republic of the Congo\u2019s most populous and borders Ituri.<\/p>\n

Ebola is highly contagious and can be contracted via bodily fluids such as vomit, blood or semen.<\/p>\n

The disease it causes is rare, but severe and often fatal.<\/p>\n

Health authorities say the current outbreak, first confirmed on Friday, is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of the Ebola disease that has no approved therapeutics or vaccines.<\/p>\n

Although more than 20 Ebola outbreaks have taken place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, this is only the third time the Bundibugyo virus has been detected.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounts for all except two of the cases, both of which were reported in Uganda, the WHO said.<\/p>\n

\"EbolaEbola outbreaks have been confirmed in Ituri province. Photograph: AP <\/p>\n

The Bundibugyo virus was first detected in Uganda\u2019s Bundibugyo district during a 2007-2008 outbreak that infected 149 people and killed 37 people.<\/p>\n

The second time was in 2012 in an outbreak in Isiro, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 57 cases and 29 deaths were reported.<\/p>\n

The WHO\u2019s emergency declaration is meant to spur donor agencies and countries into action.<\/p>\n

However, the global response to previous declarations has been mixed.<\/p>\n

In 2024, when the WHO declared mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere in Africa a global emergency, experts at the time said it did little to get supplies such as diagnostic tests, medicines and vaccines to affected countries quickly.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Former WHO director \u2018blown away\u2019 by low life expectancy in inner-city DublinOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) director general Jean Kaseya said on Saturday that a high number of active cases remain in the community, particularly in Mongwalu where the first cases were reported, \u201csignificantly complicating containment and contact tracing efforts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA health worker wearing protective gear walks outside a hospital in Bunia. Photograph: Jorkim Jotham Pituwa\/AP <\/p>\n

Violent conflict with militants, some backed by the so-called Islamic State group, as well as constant population movement due to mining, both within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and across the border with Uganda, have also posed a major challenge to response efforts.<\/p>\n

Officials first reported the spread of the disease in Ituri province, close to Uganda and South Sudan, on Friday.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Africa CDC reported 336 suspected cases and over 80 deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are significant uncertainties to the true number of infected persons and geographic spread associated with this event at the present time. In addition, there is limited understanding of the epidemiological links with known or suspected cases,\u201d Tedros said.<\/p>\n

The two cases in Uganda include one person whom the country said had travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and died at a hospital in Uganda\u2019s capital Kampala, and another that the WHO said had also travelled from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.<\/p>\n

The WHO said the high percentage of positive cases among samples tested, the spread to Kampala and Uganda and the clusters of deaths across Ituri \u201call point towards a potentially much larger outbreak than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant local and regional risk of spread\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA health official uses a thermometer to screen people in front of Kibuli Muslim Hospital in Kampala, Uganda. Photograph: Hajarah Nalwadda\/AP <\/p>\n

Kaseya said slow detection delayed the response and gave the outbreak time to spread.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis outbreak started in April. So far, we don\u2019t know the index case. It means we don\u2019t know how far is the magnitude of this outbreak,\u201d said Kaseya, using a term for the first detectable case of an epidemic.<\/p>\n

The earliest known suspected victim, a 59-year-old man, developed symptoms on April 24 and died at a hospital in Ituri on April 27.<\/p>\n

By the time health authorities were first alerted to the outbreak via social media on May 5, 50 deaths had already been recorded, the Africa CDC said.<\/p>\n

The WHO said at least four deaths have been reported among healthcare workers who showed Ebola symptoms. \u2013 AP<\/p>\n

[\u00a0We must never repeat the colossal damage we inflicted on ourselves during Covid-19Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Health Organisation director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has declared the Ebola disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[160,196728,103,61,60,31614],"class_list":["post-453346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-covid-19","tag-ebola-disease","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-world-health-organisation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}