The World Health Organisation's failure to sound the alarm until months into West Africa's Ebola outbreak was the biggest mistake that contributed to the scale of the epidemic, global health experts have said.
An independent panel of 20 experts, led by a top British scientist, called for sweeping reforms to ensure there is no repeat of the catastrophe - which claimed the lives of 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
They were especially critical of the WHO, the United Nations body set up in 1948 to lead the global fight against disease and ill health.
Professor Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and the co-chair of the panel, said: "The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm.
"People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring .. and yet, it took until August to declare a public health emergency. The cost of the delay was enormous."
No comments:
Post a Comment