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Ebola crisis: 'Too slow' WHO promises reforms

Jetboogieman

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BBC News - Ebola crisis: 'Too slow' WHO promises reforms

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set out plans for reform, admitting that it was too slow to respond to the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

At an emergency session in Geneva, director-general Margaret Chan said Ebola had taught the world and the WHO how they must act in the future.

She said the corner had been turned on infections but warned over complacency.

More than 8,500 people have died in the outbreak, the vast majority in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.


Snip

Liberia announced on Friday that it was down to just five confirmed cases - there were 500 a week in September. Guinea and Sierra Leone have both also experienced falls in infection rates.

Dr Chan said the worst-case scenario had been avoided, but warned: "We must maintain the momentum and guard against complacency and donor fatigue."

WHO figures show 21,724 reported cases of Ebola in the outbreak , with 8,641 deaths.

The slow response to the crisis was unacceptable and I'm glad to hear the WHO has taken steps to rectify the situation but some important points to come out of those.

1) We are now in a global health community, the tendency to look inward as so many did at the height of this crisis is the absolutely incorrect way to view the situation.

2) We have proved that we are capable as a global community of responding and reacting to such health crises despite the initial slow response in a effective and determined way to stem the spread of such a virus as Ebola.

3) I wish nothing but the best for the Liberian, Guinean and Sierra Leonean people, they have faced extreme hardships over the past decades and were beginning to recover and were sowing the seeds of prosperity before this crisis began, hopefully we can get back to that place soon once this crisis has been completely eradicated.
 
BBC News - Ebola crisis: 'Too slow' WHO promises reforms



Snip



The slow response to the crisis was unacceptable and I'm glad to hear the WHO has taken steps to rectify the situation but some important points to come out of those.

1) We are now in a global health community, the tendency to look inward as so many did at the height of this crisis is the absolutely incorrect way to view the situation.

2) We have proved that we are capable as a global community of responding and reacting to such health crises despite the initial slow response in a effective and determined way to stem the spread of such a virus as Ebola.

3) I wish nothing but the best for the Liberian, Guinean and Sierra Leonean people, they have faced extreme hardships over the past decades and were beginning to recover and were sowing the seeds of prosperity before this crisis began, hopefully we can get back to that place soon once this crisis has been completely eradicated.

It was too slow. If the contagion properties had been different, we could have had a major global catastrophe. But compare it with aids. We did move much better then back then and moved to quarantine, which we were incapable in the HIV case.
 
It was too slow. If the contagion properties had been different, we could have had a major global catastrophe. But compare it with aids. We did move much better then back then and moved to quarantine, which we were incapable in the HIV case.

I think it was about who it hit.

Had it spiraled into a global virus we would have had the swiftest medical response in history.

We reacted slowly because the countries involved were inconsequential to the global community.

End of.
 
I think it was about who it hit.

Had it spiraled into a global virus we would have had the swiftest medical response in history.

We reacted slowly because the countries involved were inconsequential to the global community.

End of.

Probably more that this was not these countries' first encounter with the disease and they should have known well enough on their own based on prior outbreaks that quarantine has been the only known path to stopping its spread. There was no reason for us to become involved until the first case spread outside the infected region.

We are probably due for another planet cleansing flu though, and all the response in the world won't stop it when it comes.
 
Probably more that this was not these countries' first encounter with the disease and they should have known well enough on their own based on prior outbreaks that quarantine has been the only known path to stopping its spread. There was no reason for us to become involved until the first case spread outside the infected region.

We are probably due for another planet cleansing flu though, and all the response in the world won't stop it when it comes.

This disease had never come up in that region of Africa before and furthermore these countries did not have the health infrastructure nessecary to deal with any extensive public health crisis of this scale.
 
This disease had never come up in that region of Africa before and furthermore these countries did not have the health infrastructure nessecary to deal with any extensive public health crisis of this scale.

Sure it had, Uganda and the Congo both have seen Ebola before 2014. It is like trying to be shocked the a disease in North Carolina spread to South Carolina.
 
It was too slow. If the contagion properties had been different, we could have had a major global catastrophe. But compare it with aids. We did move much better then back then and moved to quarantine, which we were incapable in the HIV case.

...if the contagion properties had been different. Yeah, and if sharks could fly and eat people, it would be a problem.

IF


The system worked.
 
I think it was about who it hit.

Had it spiraled into a global virus we would have had the swiftest medical response in history.

We reacted slowly because the countries involved were inconsequential to the global community.

End of.

Which poses an other question. Would we have been willing to quarantine thousands of OECD citizens to stop a potential pandemic?
 
...if the contagion properties had been different. Yeah, and if sharks could fly and eat people, it would be a problem.

IF


The system worked.

There is no question that we will get a strain of some killer or another in the future. The last few epidemics/pandemics we have been lucky and we could use them to test our reactions and improve them. That is what the discussion is about.
 
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