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UK expert warns of Ebola 'serious consequences'

Wednesday, 17 June 2015 11:05 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 17 June 2015 11:05 AM ]

UK expert warns of disaster if lessons are not learned from Ebola outbreak.

A British expert who led the UK team tackling Ebola in Sierra Leone said the international response to Ebola was poor, and warned “we may not be as lucky next time.”

Donal Brown, the former head of the UK’s Ebola task-force in Sierra Leone said there could be serious consequences if lessons aren’t learnt from the way in which the world responded to the Ebola outbreak.

He emphasized the technical and collaborative failings and blamed the “ongoing debate” on whether the outbreak was a health emergency or a humanitarian for the weak international response.

Brown said: “It was both, very clearly – and we need to ensure that we’ve got systems that speak to each other so we’re not in a thing about should it be the World Health Organisation (WHO) leading this or should it be a UN humanitarian response. This is a complex health-humanitarian emergency and our systems need to be able to lead that together”.

Brown, a former vet who now heads the Department for International Development’s (DFID) global funds department said “the UK and the international community can bring all the weapons – the labs and the treatment centers” but it’s also vital to understand cultural traditions when dealing in foreign countries.

“It’s all about behavior change and cultural practices,” he said.

“People still go to herbalists – and you can’t blame them, because in the UK you’ll get people going to herbalists or to alternative medicine when it’s clear that it has its place but it certainly won’t cure certain things. In a quite uneducated, poor population, it’s even harder to change that behavior.”

Brown, who was recently awarded a CBE for services to international development in the Queen’s birthday honors list said: “One of the key things we need to do is not only ensure that the lessons are learned around WHO, but it’s equally important that lessons are learned about why the humanitarian response could have been better.”

SU/HA

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