The head of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim has criticised the world’s “disastrously inadequate response” to the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
In a newspaper editorial on Monday, Mr Kim urged wealthy Western nations to share knowledge and resources to help contain the disease that has killed over 1,500 people in the worst outbreak since it was discovered in 1976.
“The crisis we are watching unfold derives less from the virus itself and more from deadly and misinformed biases that have led to a disastrously inadequate response to the outbreak,” he said.
The editorial, co-written by Harvard University Professor Paul Farmer, goes on to state that “many are dying needlessly”.
Poor healthcare and lack of provisions have exacerbated the challenge the virus presents, with many airlines refusing to fly to countries hit by the outbreak and a number of organisations pulling out of areas where infection has spread.
In an vivid example of the dangers of inadequate health provision, a man escaped from a quarantine centre in Monrovia on Monday, sending people fleeing as he walked through a market in search of food.
According to a Reuters witness, the patient wore a tag identifying himself as testing positive for the virus and refused to turn himself in to medical workers, who managed to force him into a vehicle and return him to the facility.
“We told the Liberian government from the beginning that we do not want an Ebola camp here. Today makes it the fifth Ebola patient coming outside vomiting,” said a man who watched the scene.
Another witness said patients at the treatment centre did not receive enough food.
Nigeria has confirmed a third case in Port Harcourt, bringing the national total up to 16 with 200 people under surveillance, while Senegal became the fifth African nation to confirm a case of Ebola on Friday.
The World Health Organisation launched a $490 million plan to contain the epidemic last week, warning that casualty rates could be up to four times higher than reported, and that up to 20,000 people may be affected before the virus is contained.
Mr Kim and Mr Farmer said that if wealthy nations and organisations mounted a coordinated response with West Africa utilising the WHO plan, the fatality rate could drop to less than 20 per cent – from 50 per cent now.
“We are at a dangerous moment,” they wrote.
“Tens of thousands of lives, the future of the region and hard-won economic and health gains for millions hang in the balance.”
Reuters