Ebola: Early calls for help 'ignored' says MSF
A "global coalition of inaction" contributed to world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says.
Its report - a year after the outbreak was declared - suggests early calls for help were ignored by local governments and the World Health Organization.
The charity says "many institutions failed, with tragic and avoidable consequences."
Ebola has killed more than 10,000 people in the last 12 months.
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It was frustrating that we weren't heard and that has probably led to the scale of the epidemic we see today”Henry GrayMedecins Sans Frontieres
Most deaths occurred in the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The head of the United Nations Ebola response mission admitted the UN had made mistakes at the beginning of the outbreak and sometimes acted "arrogantly" when giving advice.
But he said it had learned from its mistakes and predicted Ebola would be eradicated by the end of the August.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told the BBC: "We have been running away from giving any specific date, but I am pretty sure myself that it will be gone by the summer."
'Turned away'
The first person to succumb to the disease during this outbreak is thought to have been a toddler in a remote part of Guinea. He died in December 2013.
Three months later the WHO officially announced an outbreak. And it was a further five months before the organisation declared it a global health emergency. At this point more than 1,000 people had lost their lives.
Henry Gray, MSF emergency coordinator, told the BBC: "We were well aware this was something different in March and April last year and we did try to bring this to the attention of the WHO but also governments within the countries affected.
"And of course it was frustrating that we weren't heard and that has probably led to the scale of the epidemic we see today."
The charity says it should also have used more of its own resources earlier in the crisis.Continue reading the main story
Ebola deaths
Figures up to 18 March 2015
10,251
Deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected
(Includes one in the US and six in Mali)
- 4,283 Liberia
- 3,712 Sierra Leone
- 2,241 Guinea
- 8 Nigeria
Getty
The analysis, which includes dozens of interviews with MSF staff, says by the end of August treatment centres in Liberia where overwhelmed.
Healthcare workers were forced to turn away visibly ill patients "in full knowledge they would likely return to their communities and infect others".
In January 2015 at a rare emergency meeting, the WHO admitted it was too late to respond.
Dr Margaret Chan, director general, said: "The world, including WHO, was too slow to see what was unfolding before us."
Continued threat
There are now proposals to build-up a rapid response team to react more swiftly to future threats.
Numbers are falling but MSF says the outbreak is not yet over. Overall cases have not declined significantly since January, the charity warns.
In Guinea, cases are rising again after a dip at the beginning of the year.
Some patients in Sierra Leone are are not on lists of known Ebola contacts, suggesting chains of spread are going undetected.
Dr Derek Gatherer, at Lancaster University, said: "In retrospect, it is now apparent that the delay from December to March was crucial in the dissemination of the virus to several locations in eastern Guinea and then onto the capital, Conakry, which remains one of the few areas with active transmission."
But until zero cases are recorded in all three worst-affected countries for a period of at least six weeks, the outbreak will not be officially declared over.
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