confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
Ebola side-effects
Blue Lines
If there are any positive side-effects from the Ebola outbreak that
has
already cost more than 2,300 lives in West Africa, it may be to
highlight the short-sightedness of funding cuts to international health
agencies. Margaret Chan, the
Director General of the United Nations'
World Health Organisation, says the ability of the agency to respond to
health emergencies has been badly undermined. After its total budget
was cut by US$500 million to $4 billion, the WHO reduced allocations
for responding to health crises by over 50% to about $115 mn. a
year.
The WHO reckons it will cost at least $600 mn. to deal with the
Ebola
outbreak, although the financial losses caused by the disease may run
into several billion dollars. But the race to raise emergency funds is
proving a great distraction from galvanising action for a regional plan
to stop the outbreak.
This comes as United States
officials have
assessed the Ebola outbreak to be out of control in Liberia and Sierra
Leone and estimate that as many as 20,000 could die before its
spread
is stopped. Concerned by the withdrawal of several voluntary agencies
from the Ebola-hit countries, the US is sending in new teams of
specialists from the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. But
Washington has its own economic hurdles, and President Barack Obama has
had to urge Congress to fast-track an appropriation of $58 mn. to speed
up production of Zmapp, a drug that could help people infected with
Ebola.