One year on and the finger-pointing continues after Ebola outbreak

It is exactly a year since the deadliest outbreak of Ebola was confirmed and health experts and charities have warned the danger is far from over. More than 10,000 have died and at least 24,000 have been infected since the epidemic broke out in Guinea in December 2013. The three-month delay in its official recognition has been blamed for its rapid spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia, while other west African countries such as Nigeria and Mali also suffered fatalities.

The Ebola outbreak has often been described as a perfect storm: a cross-border epidemic in countries with weak public health systems that had never seen Ebola before…this is too convenient an explanation. For the Ebola outbreak to spiral this far out of control required many institutions to fail.

Christopher Stokes, MSF’s general director

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has been criticised for its slow response while governments and charities have admitted they could have done things differently. The medical humanitarian organisation has released a report to mark the anniversary, which it dedicated to the 500 healthcare workers who have died while fighting Ebola, including 14 involved with the charity itself. It said there was little sharing of information between the affected countries at first, while their governments tried to downplay the problem for fear of causing panic and driving visitors and investors away.

Health Ebola