Ebola Shows Global Aid Response Inadequate - Doctors Without Borders

The spread of Ebola virus in West Africa has shown that the United Nations, aid groups and other actors were ill-equipped to halt the contagion, Brice de le Vingne from the charity Doctors Without Borders told RIA Novosti.

“We have learned an uncomfortable lesson these past six months: none of the organizations in the most affected countries — such as the UN, the World Health Organization (WHO), local governments, and MSF and other NGOs — have the proper set-up to respond at the scale necessary to make a serious impact on the spread of the outbreak,” he told RIA Novosti.

“We need to effectively and rapidly contain this epidemic and provide care to patients, their families, and affected communities. As an international public health emergency, states with a capacity to help should mobilize resources to the affected countries, rather than watching from the side-lines with a naive hope that the situation will improve,” de le Vingne said.

More than 1,550 people have died in the worst Ebola outbreak in history and the first to have occurred in West Africa. It began in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. The WHO says it could infect some 20,000 people before it is brought under control. (Cihan/Ria Novosti)