Ebola’s Fastest Spread Yet Amps Up Emergency Response

The Ebola outbreak spreading across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda has triggered the highest level of emergency response from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has recorded its fastest first-month spread in history and reached European soil.

The CDC raised its emergency activation to Level 1 on Friday, a designation previously reserved for Hurricane Katrina, the 2009 swine flu outbreak, and the 2014 West Africa Ebola crisis, Reuters reported. The Bundibugyo strain has infected over 1,200 people in Congo and 20 in Uganda, with 321 deaths confirmed.

The White House is seeking more than $1.4 billion from Congress to contain the outbreak, including $800 million for a quarantine centre in Kenya.

Meanwhile, France confirmed the first Ebola case in Europe earlier this week. The patient is a doctor who returned from a humanitarian mission in Congo, the BBC reported. The doctor is in stable condition in a specialised facility. He was isolated immediately, and French officials say the risk remains “very low”.

The World Health Organisation said the risk to the rest of the world remains low. “There is no need to panic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, reported the BBC.