Health Experts Accuse WHO of 'egregious failure' against Ebola

Global health experts on Monday accused the World Health Organization's late response and poor leadership against the Ebola outbreak as an "egregious failure" that led to the death of at least 11,300 lives in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia since December 2013.

According to Time, the group that accused WHO consists of 19 health experts brought together by the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). HGHI director Ashish Jha said, "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."

In a report by Reuters LSHTM director Peter Piot said, "We need to strengthen core capacities in all countries to detect, report and respond rapidly to small outbreaks in order to prevent them from becoming large-scale emergencies." He said there is a need to reform the national and global systems on responding to epidemics.

In a report by BBC, the health experts said that WHO failed to do its duty adequately because of the poor leadership and lack of accountability. WHO director-general Margaret Chan said before that with better hindsight, they could have done a better response to the Ebola outbreak. She also promised fundamental changes to WHO, such as developing a single health emergency response programme.

The panel of health experts gave 10 key reform proposals, including coming up with core capacities to handle outbreaks, strengthening incentives to encourage early reporting, and science-based justifications for ban on travel and trade.

The panel also suggested creating a single WHO Center that has concrete responsibility, adequate capacity, and accountability when responding to outbreak. There should also be a transparent committee that will declare emergencies. 

Campaign group Action Contre La Faim International's Liberian panel member, Mosoka Fallah, said the disaster that is the Ebola outbreak should lead people to think "how and why the global response to the greatest Ebola calamity in human history was late, feeble and uncoordinated."