UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Former U.S. President Bill Clinton made an impassioned appeal Thursday for modern health care in the Ebola-stricken countries of West Africa where his foundation works. He told The Associated Press afterward he hopes to keep working in Africa and elsewhere – regardless of what happens politically with his wife, Hillary.
Clinton, whose wife is the leading Democratic presidential contender, called the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea “a man-made disaster” caused by poor medical facilities. By contrast, he said, when one case of Ebola was reported in Nigeria, the government had a system in place, visited 19,000 homes in six weeks, and kept the disease from spreading.
Clinton urged donor governments and organizations to earmark 15 percent of their aid money over the next three to seven years to build health systems across Africa.
“My basic message is this: More than anything else, though these countries have terrible economic problems … they have to have health systems or we’ll be back here four or five years from now dealing with the same sort of problem,,” he said.
The former president visited Liberia, where the Clinton Foundation’s Health Access Initiative is supported by the governments of Norway and Britain and other partners. He said he spent a few days there before Liberia was declared Ebola-free on May 9.