The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires immediate response to stop its spread, The Associated Press reported.
It is the largest and longest Ebola outbreak recorded, with a 50 percent death rate and has at least claimed 961 victims. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and polio in May, AP reports.
The agency assembled an expert committee this week to assess the severity of the epidemic, AP reported.
WHO Chief Dr. Margaret Chan said the announcement is "a clear call for international solidarity," although she realizes many countries most likely do not have any Ebola cases.
"Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own," Chan said at the Geneva news conference. "I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible."
The Ebola outbreak emerged in March of 1976 in Guinea and has since spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a suspected cluster in Nigeria. Since identified, there have been more than 20 outbreaks in central and eastern Africa. But the current Ebola epidemic is the first one to affect West Africa.
According to the Nigerian government, the disease spread from Liberia to Nigeria when an Ebola-stricken man boarded a plane. The man, who later died, was not placed into isolation for at least 24 hours after he was hospitalized. The nurse that treated him has since died from the virus and authorities are monitoring seven other cases among people who had contact with the first victim.
The impact of the WHO declaration is unclear and the polio declaration does not seem to have slowed the spread of the virus yet.
Dr. Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders, said statements won't save lives.
"For weeks (we) have been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and public health response is directly needed ... Lives are being lost because the response is too slow," Janssens told AP.
Dr. David Heymann, a current professor at the London School of Hygiene and Topical Medicine who directed WHO's response to the SARS outbreak, said he is unsure of the advantage of declaring an international emergency.
"This could bring in more foreign aid, but we don't know that yet," Heymann said.
Other experts hoped the WHO's declaration would send more health workers to West Africa.
"The situation is very critical and different from what we've seen before," said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of virology at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. "There are so many locations with transmission popping up and we just need more people on the ground."
The United States' Center for Disease Control recommends against traveling to West Africa and put U.S. hospitals on alert for symptoms to spot potential cases as quickly as possible.
Two Americans infected with Ebola have received a drug that has never been tested on people and seem to be improving slightly, according to the charity they work for.
WHO will hold another meeting next week to discuss whether it's ethical to use experimental treatments and drugs in the Ebola outbreak. There's no evidence in people that the experimental treatments work and it would take months before there is even a modest amount, AP reported. There currently isn't a licensed drug or treatment for Ebola.
While WHO did not recommend any travel or trade bans, they did say people who had close contact with Ebola patients shouldn't travel internationally.
For countries with Ebola, WHO issued various recommendations, such as exit screening at international airports and border crossings to spot potential cases and discourages mass gatherings, according to AP.
The agency also said countries without Ebola should heighten their surveillance and treat any suspected case as a health emergency.
Liberia and Sierra Leone, two of the worst-hit Ebola countries, brought troops in this week to enforce quarantines and stop people with the disease from traveling. According to AP, Liberian authorities said it wouldn't allow anyone with a fever in or out of the country and warned some civil liberties could be suspended if needed to bring the virus under control.
But Chan said while drastic measures might be necessary in order to contain the outbreak, it's still important to recognize peoples' civil rights.
"We need to respect the dignity of people and inform them why these measures are being taken," Chain said.
