Mr. Speaker, what is frustrating with the debate we are having today is that there is nothing surprising with regard to the way Ebola hit in the way that it did. We saw numerous patterns of this disease, starting and stopping in Central Africa.
The World Health Organization has been aware of this and yet, when we saw the latest outbreak begin, there seemed to have been a lack of political will or interest from the larger western powers who could have brought aid at the very beginning. Now we are in a situation where we are facing the possibility of 10,000 new cases a week in West Africa. I am certainly hoping that we do not reach that number.
I would like to ask my hon. colleague about the need for a coherent international health strategy. This has been known for decades. We have seen this with outbreak after outbreak. We have seen the consequences of the failure of governments to act. This could certainly be another wake-up call for us.
What does my hon. colleague think is at the root of the fact that it seems western governments have dropped the ball? They are not paying attention to the preventative work. Spending the money in the short-term may seem costly, but it would be much cheaper and much more beneficial for humanity if we spend it in prevention rather than scrambling, as we are now, at the 11th hour and dealing with an outbreak that has really gotten out of hand.