Although many Governments and humanitarian agencies were surprised by the magnitude and the severity of the Ebola outbreak that has been striking Western Africa since March 2014, the weakness of the international response to this epidemic, running out of control since July, was unfortunately easier to predict. In a few months alone, and despite the mobilization of a few international organizations attempting to slow it down, this hemorrhagic fever epidemic will have caused the death of several thousand people at the peak of its contamination and will have further weakened the health systems of the most affected countries.
Whilst close to 5.600 deaths attributed to the virus and recorded height months after the confirmation of the first cases in Forested Guinea, the epidemiological experts were until recently still predicting high mortality rates in the long run. In October 2014, Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplored that “the aid arriving in the field is too slow, with insufficient quantity and is not effective enough» and this despite the calls for mobilization addressed by the President of Médecins Sans Frontières to the Security Council of the United Nations, as well as their call for the help from armed forces, a rare request for this organization. This unusual step was taken in the wake of chaotic situations experienced by the health personnel of the organisation who found themselves having to refuse infected patients during high influx arrivals for lack of room in some of their Ebola treatment centres (ETCs).
Whilst close to 5.600 deaths attributed to the virus and recorded height months after the confirmation of the first cases in Forested Guinea, the epidemiological experts were until recently still predicting high mortality rates in the long run. In October 2014, Peter Maurer, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) deplored that “the aid arriving in the field is too slow, with insufficient quantity and is not effective enough» and this despite the calls for mobilization addressed by the President of Médecins Sans Frontières to the Security Council of the United Nations, as well as their call for the help from armed forces, a rare request for this organization. This unusual step was taken in the wake of chaotic situations experienced by the health personnel of the organisation who found themselves having to refuse infected patients during high influx arrivals for lack of room in some of their Ebola treatment centres (ETCs).