Friday, 29 March, 2024
HomeNews UpdateWHO slammed for weak Ebola response

WHO slammed for weak Ebola response

The World Health Organisation has received harsh criticism for its weak response to Ebola. Health-e reports that speaking at the Gates Foundation’s Global Partners Forum, Professor Peter Piot, former head of UNAIDS, said that while the world needed a WHO, "it cannot continue the way it has been".

Meanwhile, Senegal's Health Minister, Awa Marie Coll Seck, described the WHO's response to Ebola as a "humiliation for global health". "The WHO has people in different countries. Guinea was affected by Ebola last November but Ebola was only identified by the WHO in March," Coll Seck is quoted in the report as saying. "It took six months for a meeting of African countries and partners to see what we could do to help, which is a shame," added Coll Seck.

The speakers were addressing the highly influential gathering of Gates Foundation partners, who together help to distribute over $4bn every year to improve global health.

Piot, currently head of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said WHO needed to "de-politicise the management of diseases and develop an early warning system" to identify outbreaks such as Ebola.

[link url="http://www.health-e.org.za/2015/05/06/who-cannot-continue-as-is/"]Full Health-e report[/link]
[link url="http://https//sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics/sustainabledevelopmentgoals"]Sustainable Development Goals[/link]

MedicalBrief — our free weekly e-newsletter

We'd appreciate as much information as possible, however only an email address is required.