Ebola crisis points to wider global threat on a par with al-Qaida, warns UK medic

THE GUARDIAN by Lisa O'Carroll                                                           March 27, 2015

Ebola should be seen as an early wake-up call to world leaders of the potential for an international health disaster in the same way that the 1998 US embassy bombings highlighted the possibility of further attacks by al-Qaida, a leading British medic in Sierra Leone has warned.

Dr Oliver Johnson has called for “a big political shakeup” at the World Health Organisation and says Britain’s Department for International Development must decide whether to “nationalise” aid and deploy the army the next time a humanitarian emergency hits.

Johnson has been a leading figure in health policy in Freetown for the past two years, heading a partnership between the UK’s King’s Health Partners and key health institutions in Sierra Leone, including the Connaught hospital. He was previously policy director for the Parliamentary Group on Global Health.

....Johnson also called for the world’s largest nations to restructure the WHO as a matter of urgency.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/mar/27/ebola-crisis-al-qaida-oliver-johnson-global-threat-uk-medic