The worrld Health Organization WHO has admitted serious failings in its handling of the Ebola crisis and pledged reforms to enable it to do better next time, its leadership said in a statement seen by Reuters on Sunday.

 

 We have learned lessions of humility.

 

We have seen that old disease in new contexts consistenlty spring new surprises,"said the statement, attributed to the WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and the deputy director-general and reional directors 

 

 "We have taken serious note of the criticisms of the Organization that, inter alia, the initial WHO response was slow and insufficient, we were not aggressive in alerting the world-- we did not work effectively in coordination with other partners, there were shortcomings in risk communications .., " It said. 

 

  The statement listed eight lessons learned, including areas where the WHO's response to Ebola could have been better, such as information sharing and communication.

 

  Some critics have said that its reluctance to declare the outbreak an emergency were major factors in allowing the epidemic to balloon into the worst Ebola crisis on record, with more than 25,000 cases and 10,000 deaths.

 

 

The statement also spelled out the who's plans to reform so that it would be prepared for similar emergencies in future.

 

 "We can mount a highly effective response to small and medium-sized outbreaks, but when faced with an emergency of this scale, our current systems - national and international-simply shave not coped."

 

In January, the 34 countries on the WHO's executive board adoped a resolution seeking major reforms of the WHO, the U.N.'s sublic health agency.

 

The planned reforms include the establishment of a 1,000- strond emergency reserve force, a contingency fund and a rapid - response force, as well as a stronger international health rules to make sure every country is up to standard for disease preparedness.

 

 The Who statement said its leaders also promised to improve communication and transparency at the Geneva-based organization. 

 

 The statement was dated April 16 but it was unclear when it was posted on the WHO's website. Unlike most Ebola news, it was not communicated by email or via the organization's busy Twitter channels.

 

 Also on recently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its guidelines on Ebola transmission and sex, It recommended that survivors of the Ebola virus completely abstain from sex "until more information becomes available " or to use condoms every time, while it had originaly recommended they abstian for three months

 

By Gabriel Olawale