UN health agency calls emergency meeting on Ebola outbreak

LONDON – The head of the World Health Organization is convening a meeting of experts on Wednesday to decide whether the Ebola outbreak should be declared an international emergency after spreading to eastern Congo’s biggest city this week.

This is the fourth time WHO has convened the group to assess this virus outbreak. The committee has repeatedly declined to make such a declaration, which often brings more international attention and aid.

This week a preacher with Ebola was identified after arriving by bus in Goma, a city of more than 2 million people. WHO now confirms he has died.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier described Ebola’s spread to Goma as a potential “game-changer.” But Congo’s health minister, Dr. Oly Ilunga, insisted the situation was “not a humanitarian crisis.”