WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A day after the World Health Organization declared the new Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo an international emergency, top global disease transmission experts stressed that the chances of another global pandemic similar to the 2019 coronavirus emergency are increasing all the time.
'The world is not safer from pandemics', said experts from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, who underscored how the world's vulnerability was exposed by an Ebola outbreak a decade ago and then by the 'global catastrophe' of Covid-19.
'As infectious disease outbreaks become more frequent they are also becoming more damaging, with widening health, economic, political and social impacts, and less capacity to recover from them,' the experts said in a new report.
More than 130 people have died due to the current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, according to local authorities.
Health authorities have recorded eight laboratory-confirmed cases, 246 suspected cases and 80 suspected deaths in Ituri province in eastern pat of DR Congo.
On Sunday, unconfirmed reports indicated that an individual had tested positive for Ebola in the rebel-held city of Goma, capital of North Kivu province and home to one million people.
The confirmed case is believed to be the wife of a man who died after contracting Ebola in Bunia, capital of Ituri province. Another individual who had travelled from Bunia to Beni in North Kivu also tested positive for Ebola.
Cases have also been confirmed in the DR Congo capital, Kinshasa, and across the border in Uganda, where two infected individuals travelled from DR Congo and were admitted to intensive care. The Ugandan capital, Kampala, is also impacted, WHO said.
News reports late on Monday citing a medical missionary NGO in DR Congo said a U.S. doctor had a confirmed case, with at least six US citizens exposed during the new outbreak.
The UN health agency said it is supporting the Government-led response with 42 health professionals on the ground and supplies already deployed.
WHO has warned that the outbreak is likely larger than currently detected, pointing to clusters of unexplained deaths, a high positivity rate among tested samples and limited understanding of transmission patterns. At least four deaths among healthcare workers have raised concerns over infection prevention measures in health facilities.
In a statement, the UN agency noted that there is no approved therapy or vaccine to treat the Bundibugyo virus which is responsible for the current outbreak.
'The ongoing insecurity, humanitarian crisis, high population mobility, the urban or semi-urban nature of the current hotspot and the large network of informal healthcare facilities further compound the risk of spread, as was witnessed during the large Ebola virus disease epidemic in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in 2018-19,' WHO said.
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