The World Health Organisation (WHO) drew sharp criticism on Sunday over its response to the Ebola epidemic, with donors and agencies urging the creation of a contingency fund and an emergency workforce to respond quickly to future crises.
Director-general Dr Margaret Chan acknowledged that the outbreak showed the need to strengthen WHO's crisis management and to streamline procedures for recruiting frontline workers. In the past year, 21,724 Ebola cases have been reported in nine countries and 8,641 people have died, the WHO says.