WHO Declares Ebola Outbreak in Congo a Public Health Emergency

The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency of international concern. The virus has killed at least 140 people, though the true toll may be far higher. Aid agencies are racing to help health workers respond to the outbreak.

The declaration came after a series of violent incidents that disrupted treatment efforts in affected areas. In late May, soccer player Eli Munongo died at a hospital in Rwampara. Hospital officials suspected Ebola, and family, friends, and teammates were told they could not take his body home for burial.

A crowd gathered at the hospital entrance in Rwampara. A group of young men stormed the compound and set fire to large tents pitched in the garden for Ebola patients. The same day, one of MSF's tented treatment centers in Mongbwalu was set on fire.

Grieving parishioners at a church in Mongbwalu, some of them armed, engaged in a five-hour standoff with security forces outside a hospital where their priest had died. Anthropologist Julienne Anoko has worked for more than a decade building trust between communities and Ebola responders. She was preparing to join the WHO response team around the time of the Rwampara incident.

Anoko said responders can bring in hundreds of experts and thousands of doctors, but all efforts will fail without community trust. She added that the only way forward is to show humility and empathy, noting that the outbreak started in these communities and that is where it will end.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated last Friday that misinformation is almost as dangerous as the virus itself.