Editorial: Who will pay to stop Ebola?

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Sanitized gloves and boots hang to dry as a burial team collects Ebola victims from a Ministry of Health treatment center for cremation on Oct. 2 in Monrovia, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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Medical personnel at the Ebola treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, disinfect people who had brought patients suspected of having the Ebola virus on Oct. 2. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man transports a possible Ebola victim in a wheelbarrow on Oct. 2 at a treatment center at Island hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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A health worker attends to a girl at the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia, Liberia. (Pascal Guyot / AFP/Getty Images)

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Markers for the graves of Ebola victims await placement in Bong County, Liberia. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)

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Nurses receive training from the World Health organization on how to use equipment to protect themselves from Ebola in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown, on Sept. 18. (Michael Duff / Associated Press)

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A burial team, clad in protective gear, carries the body of a child at the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit in Bong County, Liberia. The girl, who watched her mother grow sick and die of the virus, died alone and terrified, workers said. (Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times)

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Medical staff members in protective suits work in the high-risk Ebola area of the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)

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Traffic is stopped at a Guinean security force roadblock to screen people for symptoms of Ebola near the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)

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A health worker looking for signs of Ebola checks a man’s temperature at a roadblock run by Guinean security forces outside the town of Forecariah, Guinea. (Youssouf Bah / Associated Press)

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A vehicle loaded with household items pauses at the border town of Diaobe in Senegal’s southern border region as people prepare to drive into Guinea. The Ebola epidemic is spreading in West Africa, spurring people to flee. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)

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A worker in a protective suit empties possibly Ebola-contaminated waste in a high-risk quarantine zone of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Dominque Faget / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man who was showing symptoms of possible Ebola listens as UNICEF health workers speak about Ebola prevention in New Kru Town, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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A resident checks on a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a Monrovia alley. The Liberian boy was one of a number of patients pulled from a holding center for suspected Ebola patients when the facility was overrun by a mob. A local clinic refused to treat him, residents said. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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Workers from the Liberian Ministry of Health disinfect themselves before burning the bodies of Ebola victims at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia. (John Moore / Getty Images)

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A quarantine officer checks the body temperature of a passenger as a precaution against the Ebola virus at the Incheon International Airport in South Korea. South Korea has stepped up monitoring of citizens returning from West Africa. (Choe Jae-koo / Associated Press)

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Ebola patient Nancy Writebol is wheeled into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. (John Spink /Atlanta Journal-Constitution / MCT)

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A Nigerian crew waits to screen passengers for Ebola symptoms at the arrival hall of the international airport in Lagos. (Sunday Alamba / Associated Press)

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A 10-year-old boy is showered after being taken out of quarantine following his mother’s death from the Ebola virus, at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia. (Zoom Dosso / AFP/Getty Images)

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A nurse with Doctors Without Borders examines a patient at a center in Gueckedou, Guinea. (Seyllou / AFP/Getty Images)

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Social commentator Alfred Sirleaf, center rear, discusses the virus in Monrovia, Liberia. (Jonathan Paye-Layleh / Associated Press)

By The Times Editorial Board

Nov. 10, 2014 5:42 PM PT

Now that the American public has had a chance to see that the very few cases of Ebola in this country have little chance of leading to a dangerous outbreak, it’s time to return our attention to the three West African nations where the virus is a daily and deadly threat.

President Obama has proposed doing just that with a call to allocate $6.2 billion, on top of the $1 billion the U.S. government already has committed, to fight Ebola. Some of that money would be for better monitoring and tracking within the United States, but the bulk of it would go toward escalating the battle in West Africa, both for treatment now and for the development of future vaccines or treatments.

It’s frustrating that many countries have not been as generous as the United States and, relative to its size, Cuba in offering aid to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Australia, for instance, banned many travelers from the three Africa countries from obtaining Australian visas without offering any real assistance to contain the disease in Africa. Only last week — after withering criticism from the Australian news media — did the government ramp up its effort. And even now it isn’t sending any of its desperately needed medical personnel to help in the anti-Ebola effort, but rather will contract with a private provider to run a 100-bed facility. Last week, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim lambasted the many Asian nations that have contributed little or nothing.

The do-little attitude of other nations should not keep the United States from going forward with the significant new aid proposed by Obama. There are signs of some abatement in Ebola’s spread in Liberia, where the United States has concentrated its efforts, an indication that the healthcare investment is starting to pay off.

But it does mean that the time has come for a global conversation about rebuilding the finances and structure of the World Health Organization, which lost considerable international funding during the recession and was unable to respond effectively to the Ebola outbreak in its earliest stages. This is a problem that goes well beyond the current Ebola crisis.

Such discussions also should be a part of the 2015 United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris. Developing nations are expected to be particularly vulnerable to global warming’s effects, including catastrophic flooding, famine-inducing drought and outbreaks of certain diseases. How will developed nations — the biggest spewers of greenhouse gases — apportion the financial burden of humanitarian response? The world shouldn’t wait for the next catastrophe before deciding this.

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Editorial: Who will pay to stop Ebola?

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