World Health Organisation downgrades the risk of Ebola
Declares an end to the emergency but urges 'high vigilance' against flare-ups
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says West Africa's Ebola outbreak no longer constitutes a threat to international public health, declaring that the 20-month global emergency response is over. But the organisation stressed that a 'high level of vigilance' must be maintained.
The WHO's Emergency Committee concluded that the Ebola situation in West Africa 'no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern and that the temporary recommendations adopted in response should now be terminated'.
Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO, said she had accepted the Committee's advice, but noted that a 'high level of vigilance and response capacity must be kept up to ensure the ability of countries to prevent Ebola infections and to rapidly detect and respond to flare-ups in the future'.
Each of the recent flare-ups was immediately and effectively contained, the WHO said.
The Ebola situation in West Africa no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern
'Ebola response capacity in West Africa is strong,' said Chan, emphasising that the three most-affected countries – Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone – now have the world's largest pool of expertise in responding to the virus.
'WHO has kept hundreds of its experienced staff in the three countries, ready to contribute to the kind of emergency response needed to quickly interrupt transmission chains, and for the first time in any Ebola outbreak, response teams have access to vaccination as a powerful containment tool,' she added.
With the number of cases now much smaller, WHO's laboratory partners are able to sequence viruses from individual patients. Sequence data on individual viruses back up the epidemiological detective work needed to define the source of transmission chains with great precision.
The Committee supported WHO's view that more small clusters of cases can be expected, but concluded that existing national and international response capacity 'is sufficient to contain new clusters of cases quickly, and the likelihood of international spread by air travel is extremely low'.
Ebola has killed more than 11,000 people since its outbreak in December 2013.
