The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday it will create a contingency fund and an emergency workforce to respond quickly to crises after strong criticism of the agency’s delay in confronting the Ebola epidemic, Reuters reported.
Director-general Dr. Margaret Chan said at an emergency meeting called to discuss the agency’s Ebola response that the outbreak showed the need to strengthen WHO’s crisis management and to streamline procedures for recruiting frontline workers.
Ebola has been “a mega crisis and it overwhelmed the capacity of WHO,” she told a news briefing. “Member states truly understand that the world does need a collective defense mechanism for global health security.”
In the past year, 21,724 Ebola cases have been reported in nine countries and 8,641 people have died, according to the WHO, which says West Africa’s outbreak is ebbing.
