[ARABNEWS] In a delay that some say may have cost lives, the World Health Organization resisted calling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a public health emergency until last summer, two months after staff raised the possibility and long after a senior manager called for a drastic change in strategy, The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has learned.
Among the reasons the UN agency cited in internal deliberations: Worries that declaring such an emergency -- akin to an international SOS -- could anger the African countries involved, hurt their economies or interfere with the Moslem pilgrimage. |