‘Too slow’ international response - WHO’s failure to blame for Ebola outbreak, say health experts
The failure of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to provide an immediate global response against Ebola is to blame for the large number of people who suffered and died of the disease, health experts from across the world have said.
A panel of 20 global health experts said the WHO was too slow in its international response to declare the disease an international public health emergency when the outbreak first began. Over 11,000 people have died from Ebola since 2013, with the countries Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone greatly affected.
Their report, published in the Lancet Medical Journal, furthermore indicates that the lack of leadership and accountability within the global organisation prevented it from meeting its responsibilities. "The reputation and credibility of the WHO has suffered a particularly fierce blow," the report stated.
At the same time, the report also highlights the lack of ability of these countries in detecting, reporting and responding immediately to the outbreak, which was what drove Ebola to become "a worldwide crisis."
"People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring,” Ashish K Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and a professor of medicine, BBC reported. "The cost of the delay was enormous" as the WHO announced a public health emergency five months after Guinea and Liberia had notified the organisation about the outbreak.
Some political leaders were also to blame because they downplayed the outbreak and did not call for international help, the report says.
To prevent future disasters, the panel made recommendations for the improvement of existing health systems. These include a global strategy to assist poorer countries in monitoring and responding to infectious diseases, creating a centre for outbreak response at the WHO, and a global fund for research and development of drugs and vaccines.
"Major reform of national and global systems to respond to epidemics are not only feasible, but also essential so that we do not witness such depths of suffering, death and social and economic havoc in future epidemics," said panel chair Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus.
No confirmed cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea since Nov. 15, while the WHO declared no transmission of the disease in Sierra Leone on Nov. 7, allowing the country to enter the 90-day period of enhanced surveillance before being officially declared free of Ebola.
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