Experts: WHO considers declaring Ebola an international emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) should and is likely to declare an international emergency over the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has now spread to Uganda, experts said as a WHO advisory panel met on Friday.

The move follows the spread of the virus from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Uganda where a five-year-old boy died and his grandmother are confirmed to have the deadly hemorrhagic disease.

The Ebola outbreak has been raging in DRC since August where more than 2,000 cases have been recorded, two-thirds of them fatal.

A panel of 13 independent medical experts on the WHO’s Emergency Committee (EC) were meeting from midday to evaluate the latest evidence and whether the epidemic constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

Such a decision would lead to boosting public health measures, funding and resources, and could include recommendations on trade and travel, academic experts and aid groups said.

WHO's emergency committee has met twice to consider declaring the outbreak an international emergency but on both occasions - the latest in April - decided not to, in part because the virus remained contained in DRC.

Only 4 emergencies have been declared in the past decade: the H1 virus that caused an influenza pandemic (2009), West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, polio (2014) and Zika virus (2016).