Experts point finger to WHO for shocking failure on Ebola as three new cases in Liberia detected

The World Health Organization (WHO) is in hot water as global experts point fingers at the organization for their lack of initiative when the Ebola outbreak broke out last year. The pointing of fingers comes as Liberia becomes saddled with three new Ebola cases this week.

Liberia was declared Ebola-free two months earlier but three confirmed cases have resurfaced, according to Telegraph.

A 15-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital in Monrovia after showing symptoms of Ebola including bleeding and fever. He testes positive for the disease and so did his eight-year-old brother and father. The outlet adds that all three have been quarantined in an Ebola center.

It is unclear how the three contracted the virus since they were not in contact with Ebola survivors nor were they infected from neighboring West African Nations, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free earlier this month and Guinea has began its 42-day Ebola-free countdown declaration.

Reuters reports that more than 150 people are being monitored in the country after it was known that they were in contact with the family.

"We have three confirmed cases and have listed 153 contacts, and we have labeled them as high, medium and low in terms of the risk," said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh to the outlet.

It was previously discovered that the resurgence of Ebola in Liberia was due to passing the virus through sexual transmission as it could live on in the survivor's semen even after months of infection. The report adds that it could be due to an infected animal as well but investigations are still ongoing.

The West African outbreak has killed more than 11,000 people, a number that would have been greatly reduced if not for the "egregious failure" on the part of WHO to declare a public health emergency, according to another report by Reuters.

"The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm," said Ashish Jha, member of the panel. "People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring, and yet it took until August to declare a public health emergency."

The specialist panel was made up of experts from Harvard's Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

"We need to strengthen core capacities in all countries to detect, report and respond rapidly to small outbreaks in order to prevent them from becoming large-scale emergencies," said the chair of panel, Peter Piot.

The panel made 10 reform proposals aimed at improving ways to counteract outbreaks in the future may diminish death tolls, human suffering and negative economic impact.