UK report: WHO failed on Ebola

A U.K. parliamentary committee rebuked the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday for failures in its response to the Ebola epidemic.

The House of Commons International Development Committee issued a report criticizing WHO for bureaucratic holdups, problems with its chain of command and a lack of foresight about Ebola’s spread, Reuters reported.

The virus continues to outpace efforts to control it “on all fronts” despite early warnings from groups on the outbreak, including Doctors Without Borders, the panel wrote.

The criticism arrives as the United Kingdom redoubles its efforts against Ebola in Sierra Leone, a former British colony. That country is now at the center of the epidemic as the number of cases falls in Liberia and Guinea.

This week, officials in Sierra Leone restricted travel within the country and began searching for Ebola patients house by house.

President Ernest Bai Koroma announced a ban on holiday festivities and said people must return home after religious services on Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve.

A sharp spike in cases has put pressure on Britain to step up its response. While U.S. forces appear to be achieving success against Ebola in Liberia, U.K. leaders said their help is not needed in Sierra Leone.

“The pieces are in place to fight the disease which weren’t here a month ago. So I think you will see enormous change in the next few weeks,” head of the British Ebola task force Donal Brown said Tuesday.