The World Health Organization, reeling under stinging criticism for its late response to the worst ever Ebola outbreak, today said it was creating a blueprint to handle future disease outbreaks.
A two-day meeting of the UN agency was aimed at creating better research and diagnostic facilities, improving data sharing between countries, and creating biobanks, said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director for health systems and innovation.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said the latest Ebola epidemic -- which has left more than 11,000 dead, mainly in the west African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- had intensified research into what was until recently considered "a rare disease".
"New tools have been developed with unprecedented speed," Chan said yesterday, on the first day of the experts' meeting in Geneva.
"We are likely very close to having a vaccine that can protect against Ebola," Chan said, without elaborating.
Kieny said the meeting was focused on building better preparedness for potential outbreaks of deadly diseases such as the Ebola and Marburg viruses, and Rift Valley and Lassa fevers.
"We know there will another outbreak of Ebola," she said. "We are at number 25" already, since it first surfaced in 1976.
Now, with more frequent travel between countries, outbreaks that would once remain localised and easier to fight now have a bigger chance of spreading, Kieny said.
"We need to be prepared for such a possibility in the future," she added.
"If another Ebola happens, the world needs to be ready... R and D needs to happen before an outbreak."
At the Geneva meeting, "there was a discussion for the use and the need to develop standard protocols for clinical trials... So that when the time comes these protocols are already developed and pre-approved", Kieny said.
"When the time comes, they can be activated quickly."
Kieny said the other proposals, which would be developed over the course of the year, included setting up biobanks and carrying out "the types of tests that are acceptable".
