10/2/2014
WASHINGTON – The Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa is not only a health crisis, but evidence of the danger of global inequality, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Wednesday.
“The knowledge and infrastructure to treat the sick and contain the (Ebola) virus exists in high and middle income counties. However, over many years, we have failed to make these things accessible to low-income people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Kim said, referring to the countries hit hardest by the outbreak.
“So now, thousands of people in these countries are dying because, in the lottery of birth, they were born in the wrong place,” he said in a speech at Washington’s Howard University.
“If we do not stop Ebola now, the infection will continue to spread to other countries and even continents,” Kim said. “This pandemic shows the deadly cost of unequal access to basic services and the consequences of our failure to fix this problem.”
Kim, a physician with experience in treating HIV and tuberculosis in developing countries, said the global response to the Ebola outbreak “has been inadequate,” though he acknowledged that the U.S., British and French governments have begun to allocate greater resources to the issue.
The World Bank has promised $400 million to support the efforts of the affected countries to contain the outbreak and treat Ebola patients, Kim said.
Under Kim, the World Bank has established a goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.
source
WASHINGTON – The Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 3,000 people in West Africa is not only a health crisis, but evidence of the danger of global inequality, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said Wednesday.
“The knowledge and infrastructure to treat the sick and contain the (Ebola) virus exists in high and middle income counties. However, over many years, we have failed to make these things accessible to low-income people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” Kim said, referring to the countries hit hardest by the outbreak.
“So now, thousands of people in these countries are dying because, in the lottery of birth, they were born in the wrong place,” he said in a speech at Washington’s Howard University.
“If we do not stop Ebola now, the infection will continue to spread to other countries and even continents,” Kim said. “This pandemic shows the deadly cost of unequal access to basic services and the consequences of our failure to fix this problem.”
Kim, a physician with experience in treating HIV and tuberculosis in developing countries, said the global response to the Ebola outbreak “has been inadequate,” though he acknowledged that the U.S., British and French governments have begun to allocate greater resources to the issue.
The World Bank has promised $400 million to support the efforts of the affected countries to contain the outbreak and treat Ebola patients, Kim said.
Under Kim, the World Bank has established a goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.
source
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