A Laredo, Texas public health official said that 20 migrants from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were monitored for Ebola and other diseases.
"We have 8 Congolese right now in one of our shelters and a dozen in Nuevo Laredo," said Dr. Hector Gonzalez during an April 4 meeting of the Laredo City Council. Gonzales is the director of the Laredo Health department, according to Breitbart.
"For them, my concern was Ebola," said Gonzalez, who added "But, we're on alert to check that."
The current Ebola outbreak in the DRC is the second deadliest in history, with 772 dead out of 1,220 confirmed cases since the outbreak was declared on Aug. 1, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Of the latest fatalities, 24 people died in their communities and 18 died at Ebola treatment centers.
That said, WHO on Friday announced that the current outbreak does not yet constitute a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)."
Doctors without Borders and at least one Red Cross official disagree.
"Whatever the official status of this outbreak is, it is clear that the outbreak is not under control and therefore we need a better collective effort," said Doctors without Borders emergency manager Gwenola Seroux in a written statement. "What is most important now if we want to gain control of this epidemic is to change the way we are dealing with it."
Top Red Cross official Emanuele Capobianco told NBC News on Friday that he is "more concerned than I have ever been" over the current Ebola outbreak.
Another factor in the current Ebola outbreak is active skirmishes between local militant groups, while health workers have also come under attack. Many locals in the DRC also don't trust Western medicine, and many think that Ebola is a scam, or experiment. Reports have surfaced of villagers breaking their loved ones out of Ebola quarantine wards, and taking the infected bodies of their dead back home for burial.
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