Millions of lives
could be lost in a global pandemic if the international community repeats its
tardy response to West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, 12th president of the World Bank
Group Dr. Jim Yong Kim warned.
Kim called for the
establishment of a multi-billion dollar contingency fund to ensure relief
efforts mobilized immediately when an infection threat such as Ebola or a rogue
influenza strain emerges.
Such outbreaks were
not only human tragedies but also threatened to destabilize the world economy,
the Korean said at the G20 summit in Brisbane, where he is promoting his
proposal to leaders of the world’s most powerful economies.
“It would require
something like a global health corps — people from all over the world who’d be
ready to respond at a moment’s notice — (and) a fund that would disperse
millions, and indeed billions, of dollars if necessary,” he told reporters.
Kim said the world
was slow to react to the worst Ebola outbreak on record, which killed some
6,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
He described the
proposed fund as “almost like an insurance policy” for the world.
“When the World
Health Organization declares a global health emergency and invokes the
international health regulations then, and only then would these funds be
dispersed,” he said.
He said every single
person infected by Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, needed to
be tracked down.
“Ebola’s not a
disease where you can leave a few cases and say that’s good enough, you’ve
really got to get every country to zero… if we want to get to the endgame,
that’s the way we have to go,” he said.
“Despite the pledges
and the goodwill that’s been expressed, we still need much more. This is going
to require many billions of dollars to get to zero in each of those three
countries. I hope the lessons learned are never forgotten”
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