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Guardian World Health Organization admits botching response to Ebola outbreak WHO’s appointment system in Africa is also criticised in the document. Heads of WHO country offices in Africa are “politically motivated appointments” made by the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, who does not answer to the agency’s chief in Geneva, Dr Margaret Chan, it said. As Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told the Guardian last week: “What should be [the] WHO’s strongest regional office because of the enormity of the health challenges, is actually the weakest technically, and full of political appointees.” NB: Peter Piot discovered the Ebola virus in 1976 BBC Ebola crisis: WHO accused of 'failure' in early response Poor communication and incompetent staff meant the World Health Organization failed to react swiftly Ebola outbreak in Africa, reports say. An internal document said those involved "failed to see some fairly plain writing on the wall", according to the Associated Press. Separately, sources close to the WHO told Bloomberg of multiple failures in the outbreak's early stages. In response, a senior official told the BBC time would come for an inquiry. In the worst affected countries - Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - the Ebola virus has now killed 4,546 people with cases of infection numbering 9,191, according to the latest WHO figures

CNN WHO to review Ebola response amid criticism of its efforts A timeline of the outbreak showed that WHO missed opportunities to stop the spread of the disease after it was first diagnosed in West Africa, the Associated Press reported. The document also said WHO experts failed to recognize that traditional containment methods wouldn't work in the region. The leaked document said that Dr. Bruce Aylward, normally in charge of polio eradication, alerted WHO Director-General Margaret Chan via email in June that national health organizations and charities believed the U.N. agency was "compromising rather than aiding" the Ebola response. "None of the news about WHO's performance is good," Aylward wrote, according to the Associated Press. TheHill Internal document faults global health agency in Ebola response Internal WHO bureaucracy was a part of the problem, it said, pointing to “politically motivated appointments” to lead some African country offices. On Saturday, the WHO said it would not discuss the results of the internal document, which has yet to be finalized. The first U.S. Ebola patient died earlier this month. Two nurses who attended to him have since been diagnosed with the fatal virus and are receiving intensive care at hospitals in Atlanta and suburban Washington.