Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Politics, Bureaucrats Slowed WHO's Ebola Response, Report Says

The World Health Organization bungled its response to the growing epidemic of Ebola in West Africa by relying too much on slow diplomacy and an over-sensitivity to local politics, a new report says.

But the countries themselves acted slowly, and the report also places blame on world governments as a whole, which have underfunded WHO and left it weak and inept.

"The Panel believes that this is a defining moment for the health of the global community. WHO must re-establish its pre-eminence as the guardian of global public health; this will require significant changes throughout WHO," the report from an independent, international panel reads.

"The world simply cannot afford another period of inaction until the next health crisis."
WHO officials have admitted several times they were too slow to act when Ebola started to spread in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. It's now infected more than 27,500 people and killed more than 11,000 of them. 

Full article available here: Slowed WHO's Ebola Reponse

Source: NBC News 

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