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Doctors Without Borders Slams WHO, Says They Failed To Respond Quickly

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Aid agency’s report says “months were wasted and lives were lost” because WHO failed to respond quickly or adequately.

A year on from the start of the Ebola outbreak, a report has been published by frontline aid agency Doctors Without Borders slamming the international community’s slow response and detailing the “indescribable horror” faced by its staff.

More than 10,000 people have been killed and some 25,000 infected since the Ebola epidemic was first identified in West Africa in March 2014, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

But Doctors Without Borders said in a report on Monday that “months were wasted and lives were lost” because the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO), which is charged with leading on global health emergencies and “possesses the know-how to bring Ebola under control”, failed to respond quickly or adequately.

Its report accused the WHO’s Global Alert and Outbreak Response Network of ignoring desperate pleas for help from Liberia when it met in June. “I remember emphasising that we had the chance to halt the epidemic in Liberia if help was sent now,” said Marie-Christine Ferir, emergency coordinator for the aid agency, which is commonly known as MSF.

“It was early in the outbreak and there was still time. The call for help was heard but no action was taken.”

The WHO did not set up a regional hub for coordinating the response until July, by which time a second wave of the epidemic had struck. “All the elements that led to the outbreak’s resurgence in June were also present in March, but the analysis, recognition and willingness to assume responsibility to respond robustly were not,” the report said.

Particularly in the early months, it therefore fell to MSF to carry much of the response, but the organisation had only 40 staff with experience of Ebola when the outbreak began. “We couldn’t be everywhere at once, nor should it be our role to single-handedly respond,” said Brice de le Vingne, MSF director of operations.

It was only when a US doctor and Spanish nurse were diagnosed with Ebola that the world woke up to the threat, MSF said. WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The aid agency also blamed the governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone for refusing to admit the scale of the epidemic, saying they put “needless obstacles” in the path of MSF teams.

Credit: AFP

Doctors Without Borders Loses 9 Medics to Ebola

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International aid organization Doctors Without Borders said that 16 of its staff members have been infected with Ebola and nine of them have died.

Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg Tuesday, the head of Doctors Without Borders in South Africa Sharon Ekambaram said medical workers have received inadequate assistance from the international community.

“Where is WHO Africa? Where is the African Union?” said Ekambaram who worked in Sierra Leone from August to September. “We’ve all heard their promises in the media but have seen very little on the ground.”

Four of the organization’s medical workers who had just returned from Sierra Leone and Liberia said they were frustrated, “chasing after the curve of the outbreak,” according to Jens Pederson, the aid organization’s humanitarian affairs adviser.

“To manage Ebola is not rocket science. It’s very basic infection control and very basic protection of staff,” said Pederson who said clean water, chlorine and soap were enough to disinfect an affected area.

While donations often focus on medical supplies, Pedersen said psychological and social support were just as important for patients who were isolated from their communities and who had lost many of their own relatives. Demonstrating the hazmat suits worn during treatment, doctors said it is difficult to build a relationship with patients with only their eyes visible between a heavy duty mask and hood, blurred behind thick goggles.

The number of those who have died from Ebola is probably an underestimate because many families hide their sick and dying loved ones, said Juli Switala, a Doctors Without Borders staff member. More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola so far, according to the World Health Organization.

Australia won’t send Ebola doctors to West Africa

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Australia on Monday ruled out sending doctors to West Africa to help fight the Ebola outbreak because of logistical problems in repatriating any Australian who became infected with the deadly virus.

Doctors Without Borders, as well as the Australian opposition party have called on the government to send a medical team to assist in a worsening doctor shortage in West Africa, but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said the Australian Health and Defense Departments had both advised that Australia could not safely evacuate Australian health workers back home.

“The Australian government is not about to risk the health of Australian workers in the absence of credible evacuation plans that could bring our people back to Australia,” Bishop told reporters.

Australia announced two weeks ago that it would immediately provide an additional 7 million Australian dollars ($6.4 million) to help the international response to the outbreak. The country had previously committed AU$1 million to the response.

Ebola: Sierra Leone Plans 3Days Nationwide Lockdown

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Ebola MSF Military

Sierra Leone plans a three-day nationwide lockdown in an effort to fight the Ebola outbreak that has killed hundreds.

This implies that people will not be allowed to leave their homes for three days under the plan, set to start September 19. The lockdown is being billed as a predominantly social campaign rather than a medical one, in which volunteers will go door-to-door to talk to people.

Alhaji Alpha Kanu, Sierra Leone’s minister of information and communication said, “We believe this the best way for now to identify those who are sick and remove them from those who are well.”

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) however says that a proposed nation-wide lockdown in Sierra Leone will not help control the spread of the Ebola virus.

MSF said on Saturday that, “It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola as they end up driving people underground and jeopardizing the trust between people and health providers.”