TEMPO.CO, Geneva - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) claimed that international response to ebola virus in Africa was "almost zero, with world leaders concerned more on protecting their own countries than helping eradicating the virus that has killed more than 1,200 people."
Brice de la Vigne, operations director of MSF, said that politicians in industrialized countries have to take urgent actions or the virus will be uncontrollable. "Globally, the response of the international community is almost zero," he told The Guardian. "Leaders in the west are talking about their own safety and doing things like closing airlines – and not helping anyone else."
De la Vigne's statement came as the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the death toll of ebola virus is considered to be the highest in the world, with the virus now infecting Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
De la Vigne, who had just returned from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, said that the scale of the outbreak was comparable to disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 that killed 300,000 people.
"The solution is not that complicated but we need to have the political will to do so. Time is running against us. But you need very senior people with high profiles, the kind of people who can co-ordinate a response to a million people affected by an earthquake," he said.
GUARDIAN | INDAH P.
