WHO Raises Alert On Cholera Outbreak In Nigeria, Elsewhere

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned governments and the international health community that the threat of a cholera outbreak is a major public concern in Nigeria and some developing countries.
WHO, however, in a statement, said the use of Oral Cholera Vaccines (OCV) was proving to be an efficient tool to effectively control outbreaks.
According to the apex United Nations (UN) health body, new outbreaks are ongoing in South Sudan and Tanzania, fanned by insecurity and displacement. Intensive control efforts are ongoing and vaccination programmes have been rolled out to target communities at risk.

WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, admitted in May, it had been “overwhelmed” by the Ebola outbreak, saying it “shook this organisation to its core.”
The disease that hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea began spreading in December 2013, but it took until August 2014 for WHO to sound the alarm. By that point, more than 1,000 people had died of the virus. The death toll now stands at more than 11,000.
According to the report, WHO lacked a culture of rapid decision-making. In the early stages of the Ebola crisis, messages were sent about the seriousness of the situation but these “either did not reach senior leaders or senior leaders did not recognise their significance.”