WHO draws lessons from Ebola for future disease epidemics

Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director General for the World Health Organization (WHO), on Tuesday called for using the experience of Ebola research and development (R&D) to better prepare for other potential epidemics and health threats.

From May 11 to 12, WHO convened a R&D forum to discuss the lessons learned during the Ebola outbreaks, with an aim to come up with a preparedness plan for diseases prone to become epidemic

"Ebola is not the only epidemic-prone disease for which there are no medicines, vaccines or diagnostics. Nor is this the first time the world has been caught unprepared in the face of an epidemic such as SARS, H1N1," Kieny told a press conference.

She warned that with more frequent travel, globalized trade and greater interconnectedness between countries, disease outbreaks that once used to be localized and quickly extinguished now have a much greater chance of spreading more widely.

Kieny added actions taken by the international community during the Ebola epidemic to find medical tools to address the virus have demonstrated that R&D can be accelerated.

"We now have commercial diagnostics to detect Ebola, and at least two possibly effective vaccines," she noted. "These results would normally have taken five to 10 years. We have done it in less than 10 months."

Kieny highlighted that "if something like Ebola ever happens again, the world needs to be ready with an R&D preparedness plan with clear rules, platforms for information sharing, established processes to expedite development and clinical trials to activate coordinated action and limit the damage." Endit