(task) UN Ebola chief calls for final funding push to defeat virus in west Africa | Global development | The Guardian

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Ebola, Funding

> http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/20/un-ebola-chief-calls-for-final-funding-push-to-defeat-virus-in-west-africa <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/20/un-ebola-chief-calls-for-final-funding-push-to-defeat-virus-in-west-africa>
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> UN Ebola chief calls for final funding push to defeat virus in west Africa
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> Half a billion dollars of aid pledged to end the Ebola <http://www.theguardian.com/world/ebola> outbreak in west Africa still hasn’t been paid, according to the UN’s response co-ordinator.
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> Dr David Nabarro, in London and on his way to Davos to discuss progress against Ebola and future plans, said about two-thirds of the promised $1.5bn had been paid so far. “This last third is the most precious money but probably the most difficult money,” he told the Guardian. “My focus over the next few days here and in Davos <http://www.theguardian.com/business/davos> is trying to ensure we have enough money to enable the task to be completed.
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> “Part of my job is to make the point to everybody that now we need money more than ever. It is the money that people least like to give – into the secretary general’s trust fund that could be distributed to whoever needs it in response to demand.
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> “It is going to be tough, but I suppose I’m confident that nobody wants the job to be half done.”
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> The biggest pledges were made by the US government and the World Bank, followed by the UK. The African Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund are also substantial donors. At least three philanthropists – the Gates Foundation, Mark Zuckerberg and the Paul G Allen Family Foundation – have contributed.
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> Nabarro said he was not sounding alarm bells and he praised the British contribution to the fight against the disease that has ravaged Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, which has included sending military personnel and NHS volunteers as well as the efforts of NGOs.
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> Arguably the response has continued to lag behind events. The treatment centres that were constructed and opened, sometimes with a big fanfare, in Sierra Leone in recent months are not full because the numbers of people becoming ill are dropping, albeit less quickly than happened in Liberia.
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> Just about every leader who has been focusing on Ebola is saying what lessons can we learn for the next time
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> Dr David Nabarro, UN Ebola lead co-ordinator
> But Nabarro said: “I’d rather have empty or minimally filled treatment centres than overflowing treatment centres.
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> “When I started in August, pretty quickly I said to myself look at the outbreak curve and the speed with which treatment centres are being built. We really need a massive ten to twentyfold build up.”
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> But it usually takes two to three months to build treatment centres, he said. “By December I was seeing really hopeful evidence of a strong response. There were treatment centres open all over Sierra Leone and Liberia and increasingly Guinea. You need to have the treatment centres there and not worry if they are empty.”
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> It was possible, he added, that the treatment capacity could be “slightly scaled down” in Sierra Leone and it would be useful if it could be capable of being moved – because as one outbreak of Ebola in a region is overcome, others flare up in previously unaffected places.
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> But he continued: “We must not make the mistake of ever saying we are no longer needed because there are only a few cases.”
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> Discussions are already underway to ensure that the global response to any future epidemic will never be as slow as it was for Ebola in west Africa, where the first case occurred in December 2013 but no diagnosis was made until March 2014 and the World Health Organisation (WHO) only declared an emergency in August.
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> “I always wish we [the UN] could be that bit quicker and more mobile. Our secretary general and the bosses in New York are all saying we want to be quicker. Just about every leader everywhere who has been focusing on Ebola is saying what lessons can we learn for the next time,” he said. It will be up for discussion at Davos on Friday and later at the African Union and other meetings are scheduled for February and March.
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> Nabarro predicted a new capacity to deal with outbreaks would be put in place, but preparedness was difficult to finance, he said.
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> The WHO has been criticised for cutting back on its outbreak response capacity. Nabarro was involved in dealing with the H5N1 avian flu pandemic of 2005. “At that time in 2005, money could be raised,” he said. “People were worried about it. Then gradually as the threat receded and as people felt if there is a flu pandemic it won’t be too bad, the money died away.” Then H1N1 swine flu took off in Mexico in 2009 and much the same thing happened.
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> Asked if the money to prepare against another Ebola outbreak or some other epidemic might also disappear once the current threat is over, he said: “Preparedness is something that governments don’t really want to invest in in a sustained way. It is often the first thing to be cut.
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> “I think this time there will be enough anxiety to really put in place sustained preparedness. I’m confident that say by the World Health Assembly in May there will be new arrangements in place which will mean the lag time between the alert being sounded and the response stepped up should be shorter.”