Source: European Parliament
The Commission and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have been monitoring the disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) via epidemic intelligence and regular contacts with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the African CDC (Af-CDC).
The Health Security Committee held an ad-hoc meeting on the topic on 12 December 2024[1]. The WHO Regional Office for Africa provided an overview of the epidemiological situation and informed on mortality, severity, and etiological agents. The ECDC explained that the risk posed to EU/European Economic Area countries is low.
On 27 December 2024, the WHO informed that the undiagnosed disease reported in the DRC’s Kwango province is due to the combination of malaria and common respiratory infections in groups facing food insecurity[2].
The Af-CDC receives support via the EU4Health and the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument — Global Europe (NDICI-GE)[3] Programmes to strengthen its prevention, preparedness and response capacities (PPRC) for emerging epidemics.
The Commission works to strengthen third countries’ health systems, including in the DRC, to support their PPRC through Global, regional and bilateral programmes[4].
The Commission acts against serious cross-border threats to health (SCBTH) with a variety of tools and mechanisms defined in Regulations 851/2004[5], 2022/2371[6] and 2022/2372[7] and Decision No 1313/2013/EU[8].
It is developing a Union PPR plan to promote a coordinated response to SCBTH. It will consider provisions on joint arrangements for governance, capacities and resources, and cross-border interregional preparedness elements[9].
- [1] https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/5c977252-7aa8-4219-a57b-b853bb2531d1_en?filename=security_20241212_sr_en.pdf
- [2] As published in WHO’s Disease Outbreak News Item https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news/item/2024-DON547
- [3] https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/funding-technical-assistance/neighbourhood-development-and-international-cooperation-instrument-global-europe-ndici-global-europe_en
- [4] E.g.: the Pandemic Fund, Global Fund, Gavi Alliance, etc.
- [5] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02004R0851-20221226
- [6] http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2371/oj
- [7] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2022:314:FULL&from=EN
- [8] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02013D1313-20231218
- [9] As included in Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 November 2022 on serious cross-border threats to health and repealing Decision No 1082/2013/EU http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/2371/oj