Ebola outbreak international health emergency: WHO

The Ebola epidemic has been declared to be an international health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

On Friday, WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan urged the international community to provide assistance to countries hit by the “largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in the nearly four-decade history of this disease.”

“I am declaring the current outbreak a public health emergency of international concern,” Chan said, highlighting the “serious and unusual nature of the outbreak.”

The WHO chief also called on countries and airports around the globe to “detect, investigate and manage” Ebola cases.

The Ebola epidemic has already killed nearly 1,000 people in West Africa, Chan noted.

The death toll has prompted most countries in West Africa to enforce state of emergency to contain its spread.

Widely-affected countries in the region, including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Guinea have tightened control in their attempts to save lives.

This is while Doctors Without Borders had earlier warned that the deadly virus was now out of control.

As announced by the WHO, there is currently no known cure for Ebola, a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding and fever.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can be also spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses. Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.