The world has learned little from the worst outbreak of Ebola in human history.
That is the opinion of the influential aid group Doctors Without Borders, which said late Wednesday the global health system remains unprepared for a massive pandemic.
“If a global pandemic were to strike tomorrow, there is still no well-resourced, coordinated international response in place to kick in,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, the group’s president.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has largely subsided, underlines a real need to fund the development of drugs and tests for neglected diseases, the group said.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is among the neglected diseases that needs new drugs, vaccines and tests, the group said.
Doctors Without Borders also waded into the debate over high prices for new treatments, highlighting “exorbitantly priced hepatitis C treatments” and new vaccines that are difficult for many “middle-income countries” to afford.
Another problem is there is little incentive for countries to declare outbreaks of infectious diseases for fear of harming trade or tourism, the group found.
Doctors Without Borders previously found that the World Health Organization waffled in its response to Ebola last year, not sounding the alarm fast enough about the severity of the outbreak.
Most notably, the WHO delayed declaring Ebola a public health emergency, which freed up funds to fight the virus that eventually killed more than 10,000 people.
