Ebola in the DRC: despite positive signs, WHO maintains the red alert

Text by: RFI Follow

It is too early to lower our guard against Ebola. Meeting in Geneva, the WHO emergency committee maintains a global health alert in the DRC. The number of new cases has dropped sharply. The risk too. Not enough, however, to raise the red alert, WHO estimates.

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With our correspondent in Geneva , Jérémie Lanche

Not all lights are green. But the situation has nothing to do with the worst moments of the epidemic, when there were nearly 130 new cases per week. Last week it was only three. An extremely positive sign according to the boss of the WHO. But a relapse is always possible .

And lifting the global health emergency would mean that the game is won. It is not recalls the president of the emergency committee Robert Steffen. “ I see two black clouds on the horizon. The first is the continuing attacks against health workers that threaten the actions of the response. The second problem is the blatant lack of solidarity from the international community. It is essential that [the DRC] get more support [in the fight against Ebola] ”.

If the trend remains the same, the health emergency could be lifted before three months. But the DRC is not out of the woods. All the more, underlines the WHO, that its health system remains to be consolidated. While Ebola has killed almost 2,250 people, measles has killed more than 6,300 in far less time.

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• Ebola
• Health and Medicine
• DRC

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