The worldwide humanitarian response to the Ebola crisis in west Africa came "very late", according to a damning official report published yesterday.
The report calls for major changes to the World Health Organisation to make it capable of being the world’s leading agency on health emergencies.
It says the crisis exposed "organisational failings" in WHO but also shortcomings in the 2005 International Health Regulations.
The independent panel says it is "untenable" that countries did not take "seriously" obligations under the regulations.
This included imposing travel bans, not backed by WHO advice, together with "significant and unjustifiable" delays in WHO’s declaring of a public health emergency.
One proposal is to introduce an "intermediate" level of alert before a full public health emergency is declared.
A spokesman for WHO said: "WHO is already moving forward on some of the panel’s recommendations including the development of the global health emergency workforce and the contingency fund to ensure the necessary resources are available to mount an initial response."
He added: "The current Ebola outbreak is still ongoing and improved methods of working are incorporated into the response as they are developed.
"But it will take many more months of continued hard work to end the outbreak and to prevent it from spreading to other countries."
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