The World Health Organization (WHO) has convened its emergency committee following the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda.
WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the move in Geneva on Tuesday. Independent experts familiar with the disease aim to draw up recommendations this afternoon on how to deal with the outbreak.
Tedros has already declared an international public health emergency due to the outbreak.
The rare Bundibugyo variant of the virus has been detected in Congo. According to the latest figures, there are 131 suspected Ebola deaths and 513 suspected cases of Ebola. WHO says there is no approved vaccine or treatment for this variant.
Normally, the committee meets as soon as a threat emerges, and the director-general usually waits for the committee’s advice on whether to declare a public health emergency. On this occasion, however, he considered the situation so urgent that he did not want to wait.
Declaring a public health emergency was not intended to cause panic, a WHO spokesman said in Geneva, but was done to inform countries that there is an urgent problem and to strengthen cooperation.
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