WHO To Convene Panel Again To Consider DRC Ebola Outbreak As Public Health Emergency; Ebola Case Confirmed In Goma; 2 Health Workers Killed

Agence France-Presse: Pastor confirmed with Ebola as disease spreads in DR Congo
“The first case of Ebola has been confirmed in Goma, the biggest city to have been affected by the disease since its outbreak in eastern DR Congo last August, the health ministry said on Sunday…” (7/14).

The Guardian: Ebola virus reaches Congolese city of Goma
“…The Congolese health ministry said a man who had arrived in the regional center on Sunday had been quickly transported to an Ebola treatment center. Authorities said they had tracked down all the passengers on the bus the man had taken to Goma from Butembo, one of the towns hardest hit by the disease…” (Burke/Boseley, 7/15).

Reuters: U.N. calls for hundreds of millions in more aid to fight Ebola
“Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak could last much longer and cost far more in money and lives unless U.N. member states inject hundreds of millions of dollars now, U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock told Reuters on Monday…” (Miles, 7/15).

Reuters: Congo rules out using additional trial vaccines to combat Ebola
“Congo will not permit the use of further experimental vaccines as it combats an Ebola outbreak because doing so risked ‘confusing the population,’ the government said on Friday. Health workers have vaccinated more than 130,000 people during the nearly year-long epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo with an experimental vaccine manufactured by Merck that has proven highly effective…” (Mahamba/Pujol-Mazzinil, 7/12).

Washington Post: First Ebola case confirmed in Congo city of Goma, right on Rwanda border
“…At a high-level meeting of global health officials in Geneva [July 15], the head of the World Health Organization said he would reconvene a panel of scientists to determine whether the outbreak now ranks as a public health emergency of international concern, a designation that would unlock more resources to stop it but that has been declined three times before. … Near the outbreak’s epicenter in the city of Beni on Monday, two health workers were killed by unknown assailants…” (Bearak, 7/15).

Additional coverage of the DRC Ebola outbreak and response is available from Al Jazeera, Associated Press (2), BBC News, Breitbart News, CNN, France 24, Health Policy Watch, Reuters, and VOA News.

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