Sierra Leone Ambassador to US says WHO not prepared for Ebola outbreak
A paradigm shift is needed at the World Health Organization (WHO), which was under-resourced and not prepared for the Ebola outbreak, Bockari Kortu Stevens, Ambassador from Sierra Leone to the United States said, according to RIA Novosti.
"So maybe there should be a paradigm shift here to get the WHO, perhaps, to be ready for these kinds of emergencies," said Ambassador Stevens in brief remarks at the Atlantic Council Thursday.
According to Ambassador Stevens, the WHO failed to mount an adequate, timely response to the Ebola due to recent years' budget cuts and red tape.
"The moment the epidemic was discovered first thing they did was to inform the WHO and we think they were under-resourced, there was a lot of red tape. From what I know, from what I've been reading, they were not prepared," he added.
"One would have assumed that they were ready ... but they were not ready, they didn't have the money to do it," Ambassador Stevens concluded.