WHO’s reaction to ebola outbreak - Failings had key role in disaster

SINCE its creation in 1948 the World Health Organization has played a leading role in the elimination or containment of deadly diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS.

But its belated response to last year’s ebola crisis does little credit to the body set up by the United Nations to lead the global fight against disease and ill health.

According to an international panel of experts, failings by the WHO played a key role in the disaster which claimed more than 11,000 lives.

The whole purpose of the WHO is to mobilise a global response to epidemics but it failed in this core area. While staff at the organisation were aware by the spring of 2014 that the ebola outbreak was getting out of hand, a public health emergency was not declared until August.

According to a report by the panel, WHO failed to mobilise global assistance “despite ample evidence the outbreak had overwhelmed national and non-governmental capacities”.

The report mirrors that of Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide which earlier this month said the scale of the ebola outbreak, which killed people in three west African countries before being contained, could have been prevented through quicker and stronger control measures.

The graves of those who died and might have lived are a monument to the WHO’s lassitude.