Mr. Speaker, we are learning now that HIV first appeared in the 1920s in Kinshasa. It circled around, it died out, it morphed, it came back, and it formed again until it reached a point where it became the virulent killer of the latter part of the 20th century.
No one should be surprised about what is happening with Ebola. It has appeared a number of times. The World Health Organization has been aware of it. However, this latest outbreak has carried on with absolutely no awareness or no interest, it seems, from western powers because it was in poor African countries like Sierra Leone and others. Now we are facing potentially 10,000 new cases a week. We can make many incriminations looking back, but this was staring us in the face: the need for an international response to prevent this pathogen from getting to the point where it is now.
What does my hon. colleague think we need to do to learn lessons from this and to make sure that we hopefully will not see 10,000 deaths a week? We seem condemned to learn these lessons again and again, as governments do not pay attention to the importance of public health. What does my hon. colleague think?