WHO messed up Ebola response -Belgian expert

A Belgian scientist who helped discover Ebola in 1976 has
accused the World Health Organisation (WHO) of
mismanaging the current outbreak response.
Peter Piot, an award-winning microbiologist, told Al
Jazeera that “we wasted too much precious time”.
“It took three months for the WHO to find out there was
an Ebola outbreak. That I understand. Guinea had a
poor laboratory infrastructure,” said Piot in an interview
due to be aired on Saturday.
“I have much more of a problem with the fact that it took
five months for WHO, for the international health
regulations committee, for that’s what it is, to declare this
a state of emergency.
“It took a thousand dead Africans and two Americans
who were repatriated to the US because they were
infected. There’s no excuse for that… It took too long.”
Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for WHO, told Al
Jazeera by email that “declaring a public health emergency
of international cncern is not a measure of WHO’s
operational response”.
Jasarevic said that WHO measures its operational
response on a scale from one to three.
“As soon as WHO received notification from Guinea in
late March that the first cases of Ebola virus disease had
been identified, we immediately increased our operational
response to Level 2,” said Jasarevic. “And we mobilesed
experts to Guinea, then to Liberia and Sierra Leone
through our Global Outbreak Alert and Response
Network.”
Having waited too long to act, Piot said the international
community has overreacted in unhelpful ways.
“An epidemic of mass hysteria that we saw particularly in
North America… was really out of proportion with the
issue.”
He gave an example of the governors of New York and
New Jersey who made it mandatory for healthcare
workers from West Africa to be put under quarantine.
“It’s not cost-effective and also it’s a major deterrent and
disincentive for supporting the countries in West Africa,”
said Piot.
He said any potential solutions needed to address both the
lack of robust healthcare systems and the local population’s
cultural habits and belief systems.