Outbreaks of disease could kill millions of people around the world if national and international health response systems are not improved, a United Nations panel has warned.
The Ebola crisis which hit West Africa in 2014 shows how easily public health could be decimated by just one disease, and how quickly an outbreak could spiral into a global emergency, the High-level Panel on the Global Response to Health Crises said in a report (pdf) released in advance unedited form in the UN’s Daily Journal.
“The high risk of major health crises is widely underestimated, and … the world’s preparedness and capacity to respond is woefully insufficient. Future epidemics could far exceed the scale and devastation of the west Africa Ebola outbreak,” the report states.
In particular, the World Health Organization (WHO) is not doing its part in responding in a timely and appropriate scale to these crises:
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