Sue Lannin reported this story on Friday, September 19, 2014 18:35:00

MARK COLVIN: The president of the World Bank is asking why it took the world so long to act on Ebola - an epidemic he says could be a risk for the entire world.



Overnight the UN said it would establish an emergency health mission to respond to the crisis.



At a forum in Sydney, the World Bank boss, Jim Yong Kim, welcomed that, but expressed grave fears about Ebola's spread.



Sue Lannin reports.



SUE LANNIN: More than 2,600 people have died from the Ebola virus in west Africa and more than 5,000 are infected as the illness has spread across countries including Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.



The United Nations says the outbreak is a threat to international peace and security. It's set up an emergency health mission to respond a first for the UN.



The World Bank president Jim Yong Kim is in Australia for a meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers this weekend.



He's praised the UN's plans.



JIM YONG KIM: I think the progress even in the last few days has been tremendous. So the US commitment was extremely welcomed and I think it's going to be very, very helpful.



The secretary-general is handling Ebola as if it were sort of an outbreak of war, where instead of sending peacekeeping troops were going to send in people who are going to be battling Ebola.



SUE LANNIN: The World Health Organisation says the number of Ebola cases is doubling every three weeks and the world's response needs to be 20 times greater than it is.



The World Bank president says he would have liked to have seen faster action from the west.



JIM YONG KIM: I think that at some point were going to look back and have to ask this question: why did we wait so long? It was very frustrating for me because I spent most of my adult life trying to convince people that no, no, you can do very complicated things.



Our role has been to say no, no it's not too complicated. In fact you can do very effectively using community health workers and nurses.



SUE LANNIN: Jim Yong Kim says the world has only a few months to contain the Ebola outbreak before the virus gets out of control.



JIM YONG KIM: We have a very small window to get that done. Our hope is that with all the efforts now that we can do it in the next four to six months. If we don't do it in the next four to six months and it spreads to 15 countries and 22 countries, the impact can be absolutely frightening.



SUE LANNIN: Jim Yong Kim, who's a doctor and a former director of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organisation, says the solution for stopping Ebola is simple - more community health care clinics on the ground in affected countries.



JIM YONG KIM: It's really not about finding a new drug right, right, it's very simple. You detect the cases, you prevent the infections and this is not through some sort of, you know, space age intervention. Any hospital in Australia could prevent the spread Ebola as a matter of routine. It's universal precautions. Most of the hospitals in developed countries utilise universal precautions. If everyone used universal precautions there would be no spread of Ebola.



SUE LANNIN: The World Bank president says the Ebola outbreak is also damaging African economies, with around 22 million people affected by the crisis.



JIM YONG KIM: So just for 2014 to the end of the year, the three countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will lose about $360 million of their GDP which is a significant amount because they're small economies.



If you look at 2015, if we get all the response in place so that we're preventing and we're treating everybody in those three countries, the loss of GDP in 2015 is going to be around $90 million. But if we don't get those in place, the loss of GDP is going to be over $800 million.



MARK COLVIN: The World Bank president Jim Yong Kim ending that report by Sue Lannin.