Global response to Ebola was 'too slow'
An independent panel of health experts, whose report was published in health journal The Lancet, have said that the international response to the Ebola epidemic was ‘too slow’ and this, along with a failure of leadership, could be blamed for ‘needless suffering and death’. Major reforms are needed, said the panel, in order to prevent such horrors from occurring again in the future. Over 11,000 people died in the outbreak, with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone the worst affected countries.
The independent panel, convened by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the Harvard Global Health Institute, said that the most affected countries were unable to detect, report and respond rapidly, and because of this Ebola developed into ‘a worldwide crisis’. The World Health Organization (WHO), however, came in for the most criticism, with the report saying that the organisation took too long to declare Ebola a public health emergency of international concern; this did not happen until five months after Guinea and Liberia first provided notification of their outbreaks. “The reputation and credibility of WHO has suffered a particularly fierce blow,” stated the report. Political leaders also came in for criticism, largely for playing down the severity of the outbreak and for failing to call for international aid.
“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 Prof. Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and one of those who first discovered Ebola.
Among the report’s recommendations going forward are: for a global strategy to help poorer countries to both detect and respond to major outbreaks; for a dedicated centre for outbreak response to be established at WHO; and for a global health fund to finance the research and development of essential vaccines and treatment drugs. The WHO has also set out plans for reform.
“The AIDS pandemic put global health on the world’s agenda,” said Prof Piot. “The Ebola crisis in West Africa should now be an equal game-changer for how the world prevents and responds to epidemics.” The report, added Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Welcome Trust, provided ‘some sobering lessons’.