Months were wasted and thousands of lives were lost during the early days of the West African Ebola Epidemic because of the developed world’s lethargic response.  The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) calls it a “global coalition of inaction”.

The group released its report on the epidemic, which is hard on local governments and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) as well.  More than 10,000 people have died of Ebola out of some 25,000 infections – mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, three of the poorest countries with the least infrastructure in place to handle it.  The governments of Guinea and Sierra Leone are criticized for refusing to admit the scope of the epidemic and for putting “needless obstacles” in the paths of MSF teams.

The first patient is believed to have been a toddler in a remote part of Guinea who died in December 2013.  MSF says the WHO didn’t declare an outbreak until three months later.  During that time, it was largely up to MSF to try and fight the spreading virus – with only 40 experienced staffers for three countries.

“I remember emphasizing that we had the chance to halt the epidemic in Liberia if help was sent now,” said MSF’s emergency coordinator Marie-Christine Ferir.  “It was early in the outbreak and there was still time.  The call for help was heard but no action was taken.”

And another five months would pass before the UN recognized a global health emergency.  WHO did not set up a regional hub for coordinating the response until July, by which time a second wave of the epidemic had struck.

By August, poorly staffed and under-equipped health centers were turning new, suspected Ebola patients away for lack of bed space, unable to do anything about these patients going back to their home communities and further spreading the virus. 

In January of this year, WHO’s Director General Dr. Margaret Chan admitted the organization was late to respond, saying, “The world, including WHO, was too slow to see what was unfolding before us.”