The World Health Organisation announced today that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been declared an international emergency. The words ‘outbreak’, ‘epidemic’ and ’emergency’ have been bandied about en-masse, which can often have a panicked knock-on effect. What exactly does the WHO mean by international emergency? Is the rest of the world at risk? What does this new status mean for South Africa? All of these questions and more are answered in this interview with Dr Sarah Barber, the Country representative for South Africa from the WHO. The good news is that there is less need to panic than you think. – LF
ALEC HOGG: Welcome back to Power Lunch. The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola epidemic as an International Health Emergency. It happened today and joining us on the line for more is Dr Sarah Barber, who’s the country representative here in South Africa from the World Health Organisation. Sarah, for the uninitiated, what exactly does today’s announcement mean?
DR SARAH BARBER: Well, thanks so much for inviting me to come and talk about this important event. The declaration of a Public Health Emergency of international concern was essentially made by a special emergency committee, convened by the WHO Director-General Margaret Chan under the WHO international health regulations. The committee met and evaluated the 2014 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. They specifically looked at whether three conditions were met: (1) whether the Ebola outbreak in West Africa represents a public health risk to other states, (2) whether it has the possibility of further international spread, and (3) whether or not we need a coordinated international response to stop and reverse the spread of Ebola.
The IHR Committee determined that yes, they announced this morning that the 2014 Ebola outbreak constitutes what we call an extraordinary event, that there is a possibility of further spread, given the virulence of the virus, the intensive community transmission patterns, and essentially, the health system’s capacities in the affected countries such as Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.
ALEC HOGG: And now in the East as well, Sarah. We understand there has been an outbreak in East Africa.
DR SARAH BARBER: In East Africa. That’s not formally reported through the WHO as yet, but we’re certainly keeping posted on that.
ALEC HOGG: How deadly is the virus?
DR SARAH BARBER: Well, essentially, Ebola is a very serious disease. There’s no medicine. No vaccine exists. It spreads by person-to-person contact. As of August 4th,  we have essentially reported 1711 cases and 932 deaths, so that gives us a case fatality rate of about 55 percent so not everyone who is infected, dies, but about half of the people who contract the illness, do die.
ALEC HOGG: How safe is South Africa from having the virus spread to the south, now that we believe it’s gone to the east?
DR SARAH BARBER: Well, essentially, the emphasis is really more or less containing the outbreak at the source. Certainly, this is a big concern. This outbreak has the highest number of cases in death. It’s the widest geographical spread ever known, for an Ebola outbreak and we’re dealing with many misunderstandings about the disease, including how the disease is transmitted. However, the focus of the response is on those affected countries, to be able to contain the outbreak at its source in those three countries.
ALEC HOGG: But you’re sitting in South Africa now, as are we. We did talk to Dr Ayo from the KZN organisation earlier this week and he said that he was comfortable that there was sufficient security at the border posts, to stop anyone with Ebola coming into the country. Is there anything that the World Health Organisation is assisting this government, in making sure that actually happens?
DR SARAH BARBER: Yes, of course. The WHO has this emergency declaration today. It has advised all of the member states outside of those affected countries that they do need to be prepared and they need to be prepared to detect, to investigate, to manage Ebola cases, and this includes port of entry – screening passengers at port of entry.
ALEC HOGG: But we have a huge and porous border. How do you stop that?
DR SARAH BARBER: Well, I think that we have to put surveillance into place. We have to educate health workers about case definitions. We have to strengthen our laboratories. We have to make sure that the health workers have the appropriate tests to be able to identify whether people have been exposed. This is not a disease that is transmitted by casual contact. It’s not transmitted through the air. It’s spread by direct person-to-person contact through physical contact with people or animals that have suffered or died from Ebola. Essentially, we need to be able to ensure that health workers evaluate exposure.
ALEC HOGG: That was Dr Sarah Barber, the Country Representative for South Africa at the World Health Organisation. No more shaking hands with visitors who come from the North.
