Ebola declared an ‘international emergency’

The World Health Organisation declared on Friday that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response’ to stop its spread.

This announcement came after a committee of experts convened a two-day emergency meeting in Switzerland to assess the severity of the epidemic.

“Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own,” WHO chief Margaret Chan said at a press conference. “I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible.”

However, Chan also said that it is likely that many countries would not have any Ebola cases.

The WHO said that no general ban on international travel or trade is going to be imposed. However, it said that states should be prepared to detect, investigate and manage Ebola cases, including at airports.

More than 932 people have died from the recent Ebola outbreak that started in Guinea in March and has since spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. This makes this recent epidemic the worst ever Ebola outbreak in history.

There is no known cure for Ebola, a virally-transmitted haemorrhagic fever often acquired upon bodily contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or animal. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, headaches, kidney and liver problems, and internal bleeding.

On Thursday, Liberia declared a 90-day state of emergency. The United States later ordered relatives of its embassy employees to leave the country.