UN Stalled Declaration of Ebola Emergency for Fear of Interfering with Mecca Pilgrimage

AP: UN Stalled Declaration of Ebola Emergency for Fear of Interfering with Mecca Pilgrimage

Emails obtained by the Associated Press show discussions among the senior administrators of the World Health Organization from as early as June 2014, in which officials refused to yet declare a state of emergency in West Africa over the Ebola outbreak for fear of angering local governments and interfering with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. 

Patient Zero in the current Ebola epidemic, which has to this date claimed at least 10,000 lives, was diagnosed in Guinea and died on December 6, 2013. It was not until February that the virus showed signs of spreading rapidly. 

By April, hospitals in the United Kingdom issued an alert to workers to be aware of Ebola symptoms. In June, Doctors Without Borders warned the situation had gotten “out of control.”