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The Real Story: The Ebola Response

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The Ebola Response

BBC World Service - The Real Story, The Ebola Response

Why was the world so slow to respond to the disease?

Why was the world slow to respond to the disease and will it be better prepared in the future?

Owen Bennett-Jones is joined by a panel of the BBC’s expert correspondents in West Africa and beyond for a special programme assessing the international response to Ebola in West Africa. 

The disease that is causing so much fear and mourning in West Africa began to spread around a year ago. The world was slow to respond. Organisations that raised the alarm were accused of exaggerating the problem. The World Health Organisation failed to act and governments struggled to cope.  

We discuss the response and whether the world is now better prepared for a future crisis with a panel of BBC correspondents:  Global Health Correspondent Tulip Mazumder and Africa Correspondent, Andrew Harding, both just back from the region; International Development Correspondent Mark Doyle, in Ghana;  Umaru Fofana in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Josephine Hazeley, Deputy Editor of the BBC Africa Service and Imogen Foulkes, the BBC’s correspondent in Switzerland, where the World Health Organisation is based.

Picture: Boys in Ivory Coast look at posters describing Ebola symptoms, Credit: John Moore/Getty Images

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