The deadly Ebola outbreak in the Congo is now declared an international health emergency, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today after a case was confirmed in a city of 2 million people.

This is only the fifth time in history a global health emergency has been declared. Previous emergencies were declared for the devastating 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, also the emergence of Zika in the Americas, the swine flu pandemic and polio.

A WHO expert committee declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations health agency to make the declaration for this outbreak, even though other experts say it has long met the required conditions.

More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is unfolding in a region described as a war zone.

But a declaration of a global health emergency can bring greater international attention and aid, and also heightened concern to where nervous governments will react with border closures.

WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response.

Last month, the outbreak spilled across the border for the first time when a family brought the virus into Uganda after attending the burial in Congo of an infected relative.

The declaration comes days after an Ebola case was confirmed in Goma, a city of 2 million at major regional crossroads in northeastern Congo on the Rwandan border, with an international airport.

Also, a sick Congolese fish trader traveled to Uganda and back while symptomatic — and later died of Ebola.

The chief of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said after the announcement in Geneva that while the risk of regional spread remains high, the risk outside the region remains low.

But Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said she hoped the emergency designation would prompt a radical reset of the Ebola response efforts.

She said “The reality check is that a year into the epidemic, it’s still not under control, and we are not where we should be. We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”

WHO has been heavily criticized for its sluggish response to the West Africa outbreak, which it repeatedly declined to declare a global emergency until the Ebola virus was explosively spreading in three countries and reached into nations around the world including the United States.

The current outbreak is spreading in a turbulent Congo border region where dozens of rebel groups are active and where Ebola had not been experienced before.

Efforts to contain the Ebola virus have been hurt by war and mistrust among locals that has prompted deadly attacks on health workers. Some infected people have deliberately evaded health authorities.

Those working in the field say the outbreak is clearly taking a turn for the worse, despite advances that include the widespread use of an experimental Ebola vaccine.

The Biblical Prophecies of Jesus Christ (Matthew 24, Revelation 6) foretell that pestilence is a sign of the Last Days revealing we are nearing the end of this age.

And these events are signs of the Last Days revealing its time to prepare for the nearing appearance of Jesus Christ to catch away His Church by being born again spiritually into the Kingdom of God as Jesus said we must (John 3) and His Apostles who were authorized (Matthew 16:19) described how (Acts 2). This new birth experience brings peace and joy in the Holy Spirit now in this life, and eternal life in the world to come.

As those Biblically born again into the Kingdom of God are saved from the wrath in the tribulation of Revelation prophecy that comes upon the world of disobedience as we are appointed instead to salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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