WHO declares Ebola outbreak an international health emergency

Almost a year after Ebola broke out in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the WHO yesterday declared it a public health emergency of international concern. The declaration is likely to bring more global attention — and funding — to the ongoing crisis, the second largest outbreak of the disease in history. Some 2,500 people have become sick with the disease and nearly 1,700 people have died. The declaration came after an emergency committee met for the fourth time to consider the seriousness of the outbreak. In recent weeks, isolated cases have cropped up in a large city south of the outbreak zone as well as in neighboring Uganda. And although response efforts, including a vaccination campaign, are underway, attacks on treatment centers and its workers have impeded work to contain the outbreak.