The World Health Organisation's chief has admitted the UN agency had been caught napping on Ebola, and says it should serve as a lesson to avoid similar mistakes in future.
Despite turning the corner in the fight against Ebola, there was no room for complacency, WHO head Margaret Chan told a rare emergency session of the agency on Sunday.
Chan acknowledged blistering criticism that WHO's response to the epidemic had been slow and shoddy and called for a revamp of its crisis management techniques.
"This was west Africa's first experience with the virus and it delivered some horrific shocks and surprises," she said.
"The world, including WHO, was too slow to see what was unfolding before us," she told delegates at only the third emergency session in the history of WHO.
"The data tell us we have bent the curve and avoided the worst-case scenario," she said.
"Ebola is a tragedy that has taught the world, including WHO, many lessons also about how to prevent similar events in the future," she said.
Chan said the "the priority in 2015 is to help countries get the Ebola rate down to zero".
The worst outbreak of the virus in history has seen nearly 9000 deaths in a year - almost all in the three west African countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - and sparked a major health scare worldwide.
But "an upsurge in new cases can follow a single unsafe act or burial or violent act of community resistance," Chan said.
She called for a "dedicated contingency fund to support rapid responses to outbreaks and emergencies", the need to enhance crisis management in the heart of the WHO, better international coordination and surveillance, and a "far more rigorous methodology for evaluating these capacities".
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