The World Health Organisation has acknowledged that the Ebola outbreak started "a couple of months ago" after facing sharp criticism from the United States.
US Criticism Over Late Detection
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the specialised agency of the United Nations had been "a little late" in identifying the disease. Rubio told reporters: "The lead is obviously going to be CDC [Centers for Disease Control] and the World Health Organisation, which was a little late to identify this thing unfortunately."
WHO Response
At a press conference this morning, a reporter asked how long Ebola had been spreading before it was detected and whether the WHO had any response to Rubio's criticism. Anais Legand, an Academic Researcher from WHO, replied: "Surveillance starts within the communities and starts with the health organisations in every single country."
This is a breaking news story. The Ebola outbreak has been declared an international emergency by the WHO.
