The Ebola outbreak is threatening “state failure” in west Africa, the World Health Organisation warned, as the US said it needed to overhaul its management of the virus following the infection of an American nurse.
“I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries,” Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, said in a statement on Monday. “I have never seen an infectious disease contribute so strongly to potential state failure.”
The US, meanwhile, vowed to reform its management of Ebola infections after procedures it had previously described as rigorous failed to prevent a healthcare worker from contracting the virus in Texas last week.