Failings by the World Health Organisation (WHO) played key role in the Ebola disaster, according to new report. The panel led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has highly stressed on the need of having major reforms to prevent future disasters.
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The report has mentioned 10 recommendations adopting which global system for outbreak, prevention and response can be strengthened.
In October, Pauline Cafferkey – a British nurse who contracted Ebola while doing aid work in Sierra Leone and was thought to have recovered in January – fell ill again due to complications from the virus.
The report said that the World Health Organization was aware when the outbreak began in December 2013 and that even though the epidemic was already on its second phase on March 2014, the agency did not respond until August 8. The World Health Organization has not responded to the panel yet.
Professor Ashish Jha said the next epidemic could be just around the corner.
But he cautioned against proposals that would move a few authority out of the WHO’s hands.
They include the creation of a United Nations Security Council health committee to expedite political attention to health issues, the publishing of a list of countries that are quick to share information and those that delay reporting, and the establishment of a global fund to finance and accelerate the development of outbreak-relevant drugs and treatment. The fatalities have been largely concentrated in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – Liberia alone has had more than 10,600 cases, and about 4,800 people have died.
He added that the teenager’s parents had also tested positive for the virus and were under observation in the capital Monrovia.
Liberian panel member Mosoka Fallah of the campaign group Action Contre La Faim worldwide, said the human misery and deaths should prompt serious reflection “on how and why the global response to the greatest Ebola calamity in human history was late, feeble and uncoordinated”.
Cross-border transmission appears unlikely as Guinea has no cases and Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free on November 7 after 42 days without a case.
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The chief medical officer of Liberia announced on Tuesday that a 15-year-old boy has died because of Ebola only a week after he was diagnosed with the disease.
