Nearly $2.9 billion has been pledged to help fight the Ebola outbreak since it swept West Africa last year, but a new study found a large discrepancy between the funds pledged and the amount that actually reached the affected countries.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs published a study in the British Medical Journal that revealed roughly 40 percent, or around $1.09 billion, of the pledged funds actually went to the countries in need by the end of 2014. Karen Grepin, the author of the study and an assistant professor of global health policy at NYU, explained to HuffPost Live on Thursday that this discrepancy isn't the fault of the "relatively generous" donors, but rather the international community's slow response and inability to fully understand what was needed to combat Ebola. "The ask from the international leaders went from something like $100 million at the beginning of August to a billion dollars four weeks later. So people just didn't have a sense of what this would take," she told host Alyona Minkovski. Grepin said the U.N. and the World Health Organization were initially hesitant to declare the Ebola epidemic a public health emergency. Health officials described the outbreak as a humanitarian crisis late last year. "This is the first time that a public health threat -- so just a public health issue -- has elevated itself to the level of a humanitarian crisis. It's possible that it never had to become one," Grepin said. "It's possible that had we reacted and treated this as a public health threat earlier in the game, we wouldn't have seen this bigger humanitarian response." The study points to recommendations, Grepin explained, on how to better handle another public health emergency, including more prevention measures on behalf of organizations and non-financial resources like medical aid being readily available. |
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Less Than Half Of The Money Pledged To Fight Ebola Reached Affected Countries Last Year
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Anguish in Argentina After Prosecutor's Mysterious Death
Every week, The WorldPost asks an expert to shed light on a topic driving headlines around the world. Today, we speak with leading Argentinian journalist Nelson Castro about the mysterious murder of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused the government of covering up a 1994 terror attack.
Argentina is embroiled in its most sensational political scandal in decades, a twisted saga of terrorism, torture, murder and high-stakes international politics. The deadly 1994 bombing that killed 85 people at Jewish community center has haunted the country for two decades, and the case was thrust back into the headlines following the suspicious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman on Jan. 18. Nisman had recently accused President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of cutting a deal with Iran -- a prime suspect in the bombing -- to cover up Tehran's role in the attack. Hours before Nisman was scheduled to testify before Argentina's congress, he was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment. Initially ruled a suicide, Nisman's death has since been labeled homicide, sending shock waves through Argentinian politics. The discovery of a draft arrest warrant for Kirchner in Nisman's apartment has only heightened tensions. Kirchner has denied all involvement in Nisman's death, claiming the prosecutor was the victim of a conspiracy by the nation's intelligence agencies to destroy her presidency. She has pointed out that Argentina never asked international police to remove arrest warrants for Iranian leaders, as Nisman alleged, and the country has not benefited from Iranian oil. In a recent speech, Kirchner called for the country's intelligence agencies to be dissolved and rebuilt from the ground up. Investigations into the bombing have been marred by all manner of corruption and incompetence: The former president stands accused of accepting an Iranian bribe to derail the case, a former judge was fired for bribing a witness, and a separate investigator was kidnapped and brutally tortured with a knife and blowtorch. The WorldPost spoke with the respected Argentinian radio and television host Nelson Castro to understand what the scandal means to the country's citizens. What is the sentiment on the ground among Argentinians? What do they make of these conflicting conspiracy theories? Most people are angry, and also anguished. They suspect that the government is not working hard enough to ensure the total clearing of the case. Even though most people don't believe that the government was involved in the murder of Nisman, most people think the government is not doing enough to clear the case. Further, the involvement of people from the Argentine intelligence services raises suspicions of the government's responsibility for the lack of protection of Mr. Nisman had, considering the high risk that his denouncement implied. Remember that when he announced the charges, he said that he could be murdered for it. Instead of taking care of him and taking his words seriously, the government mocked him and made fun of him. People are saying that the government is responsible for not taking care of him the way he deserved. How has the story been reported in local media? Is coverage split along party lines? That's the problem we have here in Argentina: There are divisions inside the press. The pro-government press will of course side with the government and say that there is a conspiracy against the government. Those who work independently consider the objective facts, and the facts are quite clear concerning the responsibility of the government in not taking care of Nisman. The independent media also covers all of the elements of Nisman's denouncement. The fact of the matter is that everything that the government denied happened to be true. The independent press showed that to the people, and because of this we have to face provocation, defamation, and criticism by the government and the official press. How dangerous could this be to President Kirchner? Is there danger of this bringing down the current government? There's no risk that this could bring down the government -- fortunately that doesn't happen in Argentina anymore. But of course this is going to affect those candidates running for Kirchner's party in the next election. That is indisputable. Polls are showing that the image of the government -- which was not so bad considering the whole mess with the economy -- has gone down. The positive image of the government was around 35 to 36 percent, but now it's gone down to 22 to 23 percent. President Kirchner has blamed Nisman's accusations and death on a conspiracy by the country's intelligence agencies. How do Argentinians view their own intelligence services, particularly in light of their history during the "Dirty War"? People have a really huge negative view of intelligence services. People blame the government for the situation, but of course that is nothing new. This government has been in power for more than 10 years and has done nothing to improve things. Quite on the contrary, they took advantage of the dark side of the intelligence services in order to damage political leaders from the opposition. So at this moment, that's one of the things people are quite angry at the government about. The Argentinian people have a clear notion that this is something that must be improved, and that it will take a lot of work from the next government. Paradoxically, the government is clearly affected by the situation at this moment. After having displaced the whole leadership of their intelligence services, the government is blind. It has no intelligence services at all, effectively nothing in order to face the crisis caused by Nisman's death. What's next for both the investigations that Nisman was carrying out, and the investigations into his death? Analysts are convinced that the investigation led by Nisman is not going to continue -- nobody else will dare to go as far as Nisman did. So in a way, that case has been definitively ended because of Nisman's death. The government will hugely benefit because no one will dare to take the case the way that Nisman did. Concerning the investigation of Nisman's murder, things are a little uncertain as to whether the prosecutor who is managing the case is going to be able to solve it. So in both cases -- Nisman's death and Nisman's accusation -- we have the idea that impunity will prevail, unfortunately. This interview has been edited for clarity. More On The Scandal in Argentina: |
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China Seizes Toilet Paper Bearing Face Of Hong Kong's Leader Leung Chun-ying
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Anti-Defamation League Urges Benjamin Netanyahu To Cancel Congress Speech
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to speak before Congress on March 3, but there's a growing chorus of voices calling on him to cancel the appearance. The latest organization to issue this call? The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based international organization dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism.
Abrahm Foxman, the group's national director and a leading voice in the Jewish community, told Haaretz that the controversy over Netanyahu's speech is unhelpful. He added that Netanyahu should stay home. "One needs to restart, and it needs a mature adult statement that this was not what we intended," Foxman said in an interview published Friday. "It has been hijacked by politics. Now is a time to recalibrate, restart and find a new platform and new timing to take away the distractions." White House officials have expressed irritation that Netanyahu was invited to speak without their consultation, a breach of traditional protocol. Foxman indicated that he did not want the controversy to overshadow concerns about U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks. While Foxman said he stood with Israel and its concerns over a potential U.S.-Iran nuclear deal, he lamented the fact that Netanyahu's upcoming appearance has become "a circus." Rather than delivering the speech as planned, Foxman suggested the prime minister postpone it until after Israel's March 17 elections, or else address the matter at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference in Washington on March 1. Israeli opposition leaders on Saturday called on Netanyahu to cancel the speech. Vice President Joe Biden is also expected to miss the address, his office announced on Friday. |
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Ebola Epidemic Takes a Toll on Sierra Leone's Surgeons
Co-authored by Dr. Chethan Sathya, a freelance journalist and surgical resident at the University of Toronto
Dr. Martin Salia, a general surgeon who died from Ebola in November 2014, is pictured on the left operating at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo credit: United Methodist Church. This article originally appeared here on ScientificAmerican.com. Thaim Kamara is 60 years old and would like to retire this year. But he is one of only eight remaining surgeons in Sierra Leone, a west African country of about 6 million people. Kamara lost two friends to Ebola in 2014 -- Martin Salia and Thomas Rogers, fellow surgeons at Connaught Hospital in the capital, Freetown. In light of the dire circumstances, Kamara has postponed his plan to retire. Although the rate of new Ebola infections in Sierra Leone, along with neighboring countries Guinea and Liberia, is finally falling, more than 800 health care personnel have been infected with Ebola in the hot zone and nearly 500 have died since the epidemic began, according to a January report by the World Health Organization. And the toll, along with the continuing deaths of health care workers will have devastating implications for the long-term health of these nations. Salia's death in November was especially devastating for Sierra Leone. The talented surgeon was not only a precious commodity, he was an innovator. The 44-year-old was at the forefront of a campaign to revitalize surgery in that nation via a partnership with King's College London. Surgical care in Sierra Leone is now at a standstill, says Andy Leather, director of the King's Centre for Global Health at the college and a surgeon who worked with Salia in Freetown. There are nearly no elective or emergency surgeries in the country because of a lack of surgeons, he says. And some surgeons -- aware that their risk of contracting Ebola is 100 times higher than that for the general population -- are scared to operate. Surgery is a critical element of any health care system, but it is often a forgotten one. WHO calls it the "neglected component" of health care and estimates that surgery can be used to treat 11 percent of the global disease burden. The standard of surgical care in Sierra Leone was lacking even before Ebola arrived, according to research by Surgeons OverSeas, a U.S. nonprofit that works to improve such care around the world. It found that 25 percent of deaths in Sierra Leone could be prevented with surgery and estimated that 1.5 million Sierra Leoneans need surgical consultations, mostly for burn injuries and wounds. Decades of civil war devastated Sierra Leone's public health and medical infrastructure, leaving it vulnerable to epidemics like this one. A lack of health care workers exacerbated the problem. Although the U.S. has 245 doctors for every 100,000 people, Sierra Leone has around two. Of the eight remaining surgeons in the country, only one is below the age of 60. Short-term solutions to the surgeon shortage include volunteer surgeons who practice in Sierra Leone for a few months at a time. They can help perform some of the vitally needed surgeries such as emergency operations and C-sections. "But that doesn't really help us in the long-term," Kamara says. "What we really need is to train surgeons, and that's not an easy affair because it takes many years." Training time is not the only challenge. Retaining surgeons in Sierra Leone is an even bigger hurdle, says Anna Dare, a researcher at King's College who was working with Salia to study the state of surgical care in the nation. Brain drain, or the emigration of doctors from the developing to the developed world, is a concern for all countries in the Ebola hot zone. Emigration of doctors from sub-Saharan Africa to the U.S. increased by nearly 40 percent over the last decade. Salia was a rare example of the opposite: He trained overseas but returned to Sierra Leone to work in a local hospital. Before his death Salia was leading efforts to recruit and retain health care professionals, Dare says. "Medical students were starting to warm up to the idea of staying in Sierra Leone and working," she says. "However, now that everyone is dying, they all want to leave as soon as possible." Even as health officials cautiously declare a decline in the rate of Ebola infections, the epidemic has exacted a new assault against health care workers in the region. Kamara, who has delayed his own retirement plans, worries about his sick mother who recently suffered a stroke and needs his help. "I want to retire soon," he says, "but I don't think I can. Some of the eight [remaining surgeons] have actually retired but they come back to work because we desperately need them." An operating room at Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Two surgeons who worked at the hospital have died from Ebola. Photo credit: Anna Dare. |
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Nigeria Postpones Elections, Citing Boko Haram Violence
Nigeria's election commission on Saturday postponed presidential and legislative elections for six weeks due to security concerns.
The vote was scheduled to take place on Feb. 14, amid concerns that millions of voters would be disenfranchised by Boko Haram's brutal insurgency, as well as delays in distributing voter ID cards. Election commission chairman Attahiru Jega said Saturday that the vote would be rescheduled for March 28 because security agencies were unable to guarantee safe elections while they focus on battling Boko Haram militants. "We wish to call on all Nigerians to accept this in good faith to deepen democracy in our country Nigeria," he said. Earlier Saturday, civil rights groups opposed to postponing elections protested in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, the Associated Press reported. The vote comes at a critical moment for Nigeria. Boko Haram has stepped up its brutal campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate in the country's northeast. More than one million Nigerians have fled their homes amid the slaughter. The conflict has increasingly spilled over into neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, and this week the African Union pledged thousands of troops for a joint force to battle the Islamists. |
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6 Bosnian Immigrants Indicted For Using Facebook, PayPal To Faciliate Extremists In Syria
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President Rouhani At Risk If Nuclear Talks Fail
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All We Are Saying, Is Give Greece a Chance
To whom it may concern, and it concerns hundreds of millions ... Two weeks ago, the Greek people cast a decisive vote that reflects a number of desires that can be summed up in one word: dignity. Ultimately, the Greek people chose this government not out of desperation but out of optimism; out of a belief that they can put the challenges of recent years behind them if... If, given a chance. Greeks simply don't feel they're getting that chance right now, with good reason. With all of the talk of GDP growth, primary surpluses, and repayment schedules, what is being lost is the continuing human cost of austerity. Unemployment in Greece right now is 25.8 percent. As a point of comparison, that is higher than the highest unemployment ever reached in the United States at the height of the Great Depression. Youth unemployment is even higher -- over 50 percent. My family is incredibly lucky to live comfortably, but too many Greek families can no longer put food on the table, much less help the future of their children. One study shows that Greece suffers a suicide a day due to austerity. For too long, Greece has been unfairly singled out. Nations around the world run afoul of financial obligations, but we are called to account. People around the world work less hard then Greeks, but we are stereotyped as lazy. I know and I have seen a different Greece. The Greece I saw leading up to the Athens Olympics was a Greece that was willing to sacrifice and willing to meet and exceed international standards. As a sponsor of students at the Clinton Global Initiative University -- I've seen firsthand the energy and potential of Greece's young people. And as the founding sponsor of the Clinton Global Initiative Mediterranean meeting, I look forward to bringing leaders to Athens this June to work on solutions to many of Greece's, and the region's, challenges. Inspiring movements and capturing potential requires time, and it requires leadership. When I served in the Greek Parliament, I was a member of a center-right party. Our new Prime Minister represents the left. You might think that I would reflexively oppose him, but I believe he represents the new leadership Greece needs. Now what he needs, is time. The Prime Minister-elect had yet to be sworn in before he was subjected to an unprecedented attack from leaders throughout Europe. The media immediately started splashing front pages with dated headlines that told the story of our past, as if it was necessarily the story of our future. The Greek people voted overwhelmingly for a new start. But Prime Minister Tsipras cannot deliver that new start alone. He needs help from World leaders and Europe's other leaders and the involved Eurozone officials, easing up the strict -- non-workable rules imposed -- on the Greek people. And I believe if World and European leaders help Prime Minister Tsipras deliver dignity to the Greek people, the Greek people will deliver for themselves -- and the world. |
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Fire Volcano In Guatemala Erupts, Spewing Rock And Ash
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