London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Expert reaction to World Health Organization (WHO) decision that the current Ebola outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

David Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said:

"The major message of the Emergency Committee is that the three known measures that stop outbreaks - hospital infection control including protection of health workers, community understanding of risks of infection and how to prevent infection including during burial practices, and contact tracing of known cases with fever surveillance and isolation of those with fever until diagnosis is known - appear not to have been robustly enough applied earlier in the outbreak and governments appear to not have been engaged as necessary. Hopefully these recommendations will address these issues, and ensure stronger international coordination.

"The WHO recommendations are comprehensive and evidence-based recommendations based on current information, and clearly demonstrate the importance of the International Health Regulations and its emergency committees that can be called on virtually to make recommendations to the Director General based on available information at the time of international spread of infections such as Ebola."