The World Health Organization (WHO) bungled efforts to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa, an internal report revealed on Friday, as President Barack Obama named a trusted political adviser to take control of America’s frenzied response to the epidemic.
The stepped up scrutiny of the international response came as U.S. officials rushed to cut off potential routes of infection from three cases in Texas, reaching a cruise ship in the Caribbean and multiple domestic airline flights.
The WHO draft report pointed to serious errors by an agency designated as the international community’s leader in coordinating response to outbreaks of disease.
The document a timeline of the outbreak found that WHO missed chances to prevent Ebola from spreading soon after it was first diagnosed in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea last spring, blaming factors, including incompetent staff and a lack of information. Its own experts failed to grasp that traditional infectious disease containment methods wouldn’t work in a region with porous borders and broken health systems, the report found.
WHO acted far too slowly
“Nearly everyone involved in the outbreak response failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall,” WHO said in the report, obtained by The Associated Press . “A perfect storm was brewing, ready to burst open in full force.”
The agency’s own bureaucracy was part of the problem, the report found. It pointed out that the heads of its country offices in Africa are “politically motivated appointments” made by the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, who does not answer to the agency’s chief in Geneva, Dr. Margaret Chan.
Dr. Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, agreed that WHO acted far too slowly.
“It’s the regional office in Africa that’s the front line,” said Dr. Piot. “And they didn’t do anything. That office is really not competent.”
WHO declined to comment on the document, which was not issued publicly.
Meanwhile, Mr. Obama moved to step up the U.S. response to the disease, naming Ron Klain, a former chief of staff to Vice-President Joe Biden, as the administration’s point man on Ebola.
Mr. Klain does not have any medical or public health expertise. But the White House said he would serve as “Ebola response coordinator,” suggesting his key role will be to synchronize the actions of many government agencies in combating the disease.
