Updated January 31, 2020 15:33:36

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak a global emergency.

The decision came as the death toll continued to climb, with the infection spreading not only in China, but other countries around the world.

It was the third time the WHO's emergency committee had debated the issue, after deciding twice last week not to call the coronavirus a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern", or PHEIC.

It marks just the sixth time a global pandemic has been given that designation.

Here's what you need to know.

What does it mean?

A PHEIC is defined by the WHO as "an extraordinary event" that "constitutes a public health risk to other states through the international spread of the disease", and potentially requires "a coordinated international response".

In declaring the outbreak an emergency, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is now allowed to make recommendations on controlling the global spread of the virus.

These could also include recommendations related to travel, for example, on issues like screenings at land borders and international airports.

The WHO will recommend national health authorities worldwide step up their monitoring, preparedness and containment measures.

The decision could also in theory lead to a boost in funding and resources from the international community for containing the coronavirus.

All cases of SARS, human influenza, smallpox and other known diseases are always considered to be a PHEIC — however, because the Wuhan coronavirus is a new or "novel" coronavirus, a decision needed to be made on its significance.

Why did they wait to declare it?

News reports suggested the emergency committee had been split 50-50 on the decision. A key part of the criteria appears to be the extent to which the virus is spreading outside China.

Recent cases of person-to-person transmission around the world led the committee to reconsider whether to declare the outbreak an emergency, however, it is worth noting the majority of new cases have occurred inside China.

Dr Ghebreyesus said the main reason for the declaration was not because of what was happening in China, but because of what was happening in other countries.

"The greatest concern is deportation for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems and which are ill prepared to deal with it," he said.

"Let me be clear, this declaration is not a vote of no confidence in China. On the contrary, WHO continues to have confidence in China's capacity to control the outbreak."

There are concerns that China's economy could be negatively impacted by a PHEIC determination.

Countries may choose to cut travel and trade links with China, even though this would likely go against any future emergency recommendations from the WHO director-general.

When the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) an emergency last year, the director-general warned countries against using it as "an excuse to impose trade or travel restrictions".

He said this would worsen the impact of the outbreak, and negatively affect the livelihoods of those most affected by it.

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 over the coronavirus outbreak.

But that ship may have already sailed.

Countries around the world have already moved to limit personal travel to and from China in the wake of the outbreak, including Australia, which is urging citizens to "reconsider [their] need to travel" there while the outbreak is ongoing.

The United States and the UK have given would-be travellers similar warnings.

Hong Kong has cut transport links between mainland China and the territory, halving the number of flights between the two and suspending high-speed train and ferry services.

Some countries have even gone further: North Korea is reportedly not allowing any Chinese tourists to visit, while Papua New Guinea has put in place a blanket ban on all travellers from "Asian ports".

When has the WHO done it before?

The PHEIC is a relatively new concept, and the label has only been applied to five other emergency events in the past.

According to emerging infections expert Tom Solomon, who is the head of the National Institute for Health Research at the University of Liverpool, the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak led to the creation of the term.

SARS claimed the lives of more than 700 people and infected more than 8,000.

The first declaration was for the 2009 swine flu, or H1N1 virus.

There were two declarations in 2014, one related to an Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the other related to polio in Pakistan, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Syria.

The Zika virus in Brazil was declared a public health emergency in 2016, while the previously mentioned Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo was declared a global public emergency in July last year.

Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS), which is also a coronavirus, was controversially not deemed a PHEIC.

ABC/Reuters

Topics: diseases-and-disorders, health, sars, world-politics, government-and-politics, china

First posted January 30, 2020 16:14:01