Wuhan virus: WHO panel meets to decide on declaring international emergency

A World Health Organisation (WHO) panel met in Geneva yesterday to assess the latest evolution in the new coronavirus, which has killed 170 people and spread from China to at least 16 other countries.

The 16 independent experts were to decide whether the spread of the virus constitutes an international emergency, something they said was premature when they last met on Jan 23.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will make the final call.

Declaration of a public health emergency of international concern - known as a "PHEIC" in WHO jargon - is rare. Only five have been declared in the past decade: The H1N1 virus that caused an influenza pandemic, 2009; West Africa's Ebola outbreak, polio, 2014; Zika virus, 2016; and the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2019.

Declaration of a global emergency would include recommendations to all countries aimed at preventing or reducing cross-border spread of disease while avoiding unnecessary interference with trade and travel.

It would include temporary recommendations for the national health authorities worldwide, which could include stepping up their monitoring, preparedness and containment measures.

Although the WHO has no legal authority to sanction countries, it could ask governments to provide scientific justification for any travel or trade restrictions that they impose in the event of an international emergency.

Separately, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), an independent body created by the WHO and the World Bank, hailed "the speed of response so far" by China and other countries affected by the novel coronavirus.

"The board, however, is concerned that many countries remain unprepared and urges leaders in all countries to take immediate action to ensure that they have the necessary capacities in place," it said in a statement yesterday.

"All countries and local governments, including those that have not yet been affected, must urgently dedicate resources to building their essential preparedness capacities," it said.

They must be positioned to "prevent, detect, inform about and respond to the outbreak", it said.

Reining in the new severe acute respiratory syndrome-like virus, for which there is no vaccine and no treatment, will require a lot of money, GPMB said.

It called for both public and private research institutions to "urgently accelerate the coordinated development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics against the coronavirus".

The monitor also pressed countries for additional funding so the WHO can boost its preparedness and response activities.

And it called on all donors, including governments, the World Bank, regional development banks and the vaccine alliance GAVI, to "financially support lower-resourced countries... to assist them in building (preparedness) capacities".

China's National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng said at a news conference that since the epidemic broke out, China has maintained close communication with the WHO, and relevant countries as well as the Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan areas to timely report on the epidemic and share the genome sequence of the new virus.

"We will actively collaborate with the WHO team of international experts and make concerted efforts to safeguard global health," the spokesman added.

REUTERS, XINHUA, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE