Report: World Health Organization Failed at Ebola Response

Canada Free Press ^ | 05/04/15 | Sierra Rayne

[Sean_Anthony]

This failure to act with resolve by all parties will lead to future international health crises that are worse than need be.

A new report by The Heritage Foundation analyzes the international response to the Ebola epidemic during 2013 and 2014. The findings are not good news for the World Health Organization (WHO), whose track record has been less than stellar over time.

The report’s editors—James Jay Carafano, Charlotte Florance, and Daniel Kaniewski—arrived at the following conclusion:

“Politicization within the organization and inefficient lines of authority severely limited WHO’s ability to respond swiftly and effectively to the EVD outbreak in West Africa. Serious reforms must be implemented to ensure the agency does not continue to fumble in potentially catastrophic public health emergencies. WHO must remain focused on its core competencies: building the capacity of national health systems in developing countries and monitoring and coordinating the international response to epidemic disease.”

[Oliviaforever]

There have not been ant confirmed cases of Ebola in Liberia in more than a month and only one person in the US died of Ebola.

Sounds like the response to Ebola was a success.

[Jim Noble]

There were plenty of errors, including both WHO and CDC.

However, urban spread of Ebola was a new thing, and, as everybody should know, no war plan survives contact with the enemy.

Expecting ANYTHING from ANY entity run by or closely associated with the UN is, at this point, retarded.

WHO in the field? Good.

WHO in Geneva, and in the Health Ministries of Africa? Get out the machetes.

[Pollster1]

There have not been ant confirmed cases of Ebola in Liberia in more than a month and only one person in the US died of Ebola. Sounds like the response to Ebola was a success.

That's Liberia. Sierra Leone and Guinea between them have over 100 cases in the past 21 days. Until this most recent outbreak, that number of cases would have been considered huge. The outcome is not (yet) catastrophic, but they should have been able to do far better. They should have been able to bring the other two countries down to zero cases by now, and it would have cost less with the proper response.