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WHO, under fire, to develop ‘surge capacity’ in post-Ebola crises

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) drew sharp criticism on Sunday over its response to the Ebola epidemic, with donors and agencies urging the creation of a contingency fund and an emergency workforce to respond quickly to future crises.

Director-general Dr. Margaret Chan acknowledged that the outbreak showed the need to strengthen WHO’s crisis management and to streamline procedures for recruiting frontline workers.

In the past year, 21,724 Ebola cases have been reported in nine countries and 8,641 people have died, the WHO says.

“We know significant changes are needed. This is the best chance to achieve those changes,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), told the special session of the WHO Executive Board in Geneva.

“We have to be frank that too many times the technical is over-ruled by the political in WHO. We have to reverse that. It must be technical, from the selection of regional directors to the establishment of rapid response.”

The session was called by member states seeking reforms amid strong criticism of the United Nations agency’s slow response, especially by WHO’s Africa regional buro in Brazzaville.

Ebola cases are declining in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and the worst-case scenario had been avoided, Chan said. “But we must maintain the momentum and guard against complacency and donor fatigue.”

Some $4 billion has been spent to try to halt its spread and WHO requires a further $1 billion this year, U.N. special envoy David Nabarro said.

Donors led by the United States and South Africa presented a resolution saying the “short-comings in WHO’s human resources systems and processes slowed down the Ebola response”.

The text, expected to be adopted by consensus later on Sunday, calls for creating a contingency fund and a global health emergency workforce to be deployed speedily in future crises.

“Countries in the African region feel that building WHO’s capacity to respond to emergencies must be a priority activity,” said Liberia’s deputy health minister Dr. Bernice Dahn, speaking on behalf of 47 member states on the continent.

“The Africa region feels governance reform is important. We have been disappointed by slow progress,” she said.

Jerome Oberrelt, secretary-general of Medecins Sans Frontieres International said: “Thousands have died because of international negligence. It has become alarmingly evident that there is no functioning global response mechanism to a potential pandemic in countries with fragile health systems.”

Oberrelt told Reuters: “Ebola has exposed a lot, it is also about responding to cholera, measles and HIV.”

(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Stephen Powell)