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| Joanne Liu, MSF |
Efforts to curb the deadly Ebola epidemic that swept across
four West African states are being undermined by a lack of leadership and
emergency management skills, Joanne Liu, the international head of Medecins
sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Thursday.
In an interview, Joanne Liu also said the world’s
worst ever outbreak of Ebola has caused widespread panic and the collapse of
health care systems particularly in Liberia, where pregnant women have lost
babies while seeking a safe place to deliver.
She said Western nations must dispatch more experts in
tropical medicine, especially field workers who know how to help communities
prevent the often lethal virus from spreading.
And the World Health Organisation (WHO) must fulfil
its leading role in coordinating the international response to the epidemic,
the president of the global, Swiss-based medical charity told Reuters by
telephone.
“I think they are in the process of bringing more
people from the WHO but the reality is that this epidemic will be not be
contained unless there are more players,” Liu said.
“We are missing everything right now. We are missing a
strong leadership centrally, with core nation capacity and disease emergency
management skills. It’s not happening.”
The
infectious disease has killed 1,350 people among 2,473 cases in four countries
– Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, according to the United Nations
health agency.
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