Health experts call out WHO's 'delayed' response to Ebola epidemic

In a Lancet report published Sunday, a panel of global health experts sharply criticized the World Health Organization's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

"The long-delayed and problematic international response to the outbreak resulted in needless suffering and death, social and economic havoc, and a loss of confidence in national and global institutions," the panel of 19 experts, convened by the Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, wrote.

The report proposed 10 changes to how governing bodies, nonprofits, public health officials, and scientists should work to manage future global health epidemics, but focused most bluntly on WHO.

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"The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm," said Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. "People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring... and yet, it took until August to declare a public health emergency. The cost of the delay was enormous," Jha said.

The agency said in a statement it is reviewing the report's recommendations and has already implemented some of them as of early 2015, The Wall Street Journal reports. More than 11,000 people in West Africa have died in the latest outbreak of the deadly virus, considered the worst in history.