United Nations

NEW YORK TIMES  OP-ED BY Ron Klain, the former White House Ebola response coordinaor                                    FEB. 20, 2015

...The world needs to do a better job of quickly detecting and responding to future outbreaks in unlikely places. The President’s Global Health Security Agenda, the government’s strategy to combat infection disease around the world, will help. But vulnerable countries, including those in Africa, need their own version of our Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so that they are not so dependent on ours.

For the hardest task of front-line epidemic fighting, our planet is too reliant on courageous and talented — but underfunded, under-equipped and volunteer-dependent — nongovernmental organizations. The world needs a permanent standing force — or a ready reserve that can be quickly organized — of public health emergency responders who have the training, gear and resources to race into a region in the early phases of epidemic control. The United States military cannot do that job every time; future outbreaks might occur in countries where our troops will not be welcomed as they were in West Africa.

Agency seeks a new model after flaws revealed by Ebola crisis.

COMMENTARY MEDPAGE TODAY by Michael Smith            Feb. 15, 2015 

As the Ebola epidemic drags on, the World Health Organization is in danger of losing its credibility as a bulwark against infectious disease.

The West African epidemic is a "mega-crisis (that) overwhelmed the capacity of WHO," according to Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, speaking to reporters in late January.

To prevent a similar crisis in the future, Chan has proposed a package of reforms, including a large contingency fund for emergencies, an increase in the number of trained people able to deploy quickly to a crisis site, and structural changes to streamline the famously unwieldy organization.

Whether those get anywhere is the vital question, according to Lawrence Gostin, JD, of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Washington's Georgetown University.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES  by Kathleen Caulderwood                                        Feb. 12., 2015

The worst Ebola outbreak in history is slowing down, but the affected countries are only beginning an economic struggle that could last for years.

Just as the U.S. recalled its troops from West Africa, the World Bank pledged millions of dollars in emergency aid to avoid a food crisis that could leave millions starving.      

“Agriculture is the lifeline of the economies of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Makhtar Diop, the World Bank's vice president for Africa, said in a Thursday statement.

“By speeding supplies of urgently needed seeds of major food crops to communities in West Africa, we are jump starting recovery in rural areas and preventing the looming specter of hunger in the countries hardest hit by Ebola.”