WHO spends 1 million pound on anti-tobacco conference in Moscow

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is reported to host an extravagant conference costing one million pounds. This conference held in Moscow aimed at discussing tobacco control policies. The amount spent came across unreasonable after WHO complained about having a cash crunch to tackle the fatal Ebola in West Africa.

According to Daily Express, delegates from 175 countries attended the conference in Moscow as part of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The body, funded by the WHO, met to discuss tobacco control policies and the role of e-cigarettes.

The global health watchdog that has been facing criticism for its handling of the Ebola crisis reportedly wasted 40,000 pounds just to provide Wi-Fi to journalists, who were banned from the event at the last minute. Some five luxury hotels were assigned to delegates attending the conference.

The event was boycotted by US and Canada after it was announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin was hosting the conference.

The organisation had also arranged for two five-star hotels, including the Russian Government-owned Golden Ring Hotel, self-proclaimed as 'one of the most luxurious' in Moscow and the city's Crowne Plaza which charges 1,169 pounds-a-day for a suite, the report said.

The report also revealed that delegates were served Salmon carpaccio with cucumber tartar, Salmon as the main course, Vitello Tonnato beef with tuna fish sauce, Red caviar, Scallop with white wine sauce, a fish late of smoked halibut, smoked sturgeon, eel mix; Smoked eel, and Salmon under white syrup with flying fish caviar at the gala feast that was held last Monday.

The guests at the event were also offered official excursions, including a visit to the Kremlin's armory chamber. Laurie Garrett, a leading Ebola expert with the Washington DC-based Council on Foreign Relations last year said that WHO had to plead for the 60million pounds required to launch a plan to contain the outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone due to lack of funds.

On the other hand, west Africa has seen financial help coming its way from various countries, in the fight against Ebola.

Slovakia is set to provide financial help of 90,000 euros ($114,000) for the construction of field hospitals, foreign ministry said Saturday.

It s for tents, beds, sheets, lighting, towels, generators, sinks and toilets, Xinhua quoted Peter Susko, head of the press department at Slovak foreign ministry, as saying.

Slovakia first provided financial help of 15,000 euros ($19,000) from the development aid programme in mid-September to fight against Ebola via the World Health Organisation.

The European Union (EU) The European Union (EU) will be increasing its contribution to West Africa for combating Ebola to one billion euros ($1.27 billion). West African countries are the worst affected by the deadly virus, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Friday. EU will increase financial help to one billion euros to fight Ebola in West Africa, said Van Rompuy through his Twitter account during the summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. Know more here. Mexico and Cuba Mexico has also now joined hands with The World Health Organisation (WHO) to combat the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa, as per the foreign affairs ministry. The ministry declared in a statement that Mexico will make a financial contribution to help equip the doctors and healthcare workers. Aware that diseases know no boundaries and must be tackled in a coordinated fashion at the international level, the ministry said, The governments of Cuba and Mexico have decided to join forces to help fight the Ebola epidemic . Continue reading here. Read more on Ebola virus causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention.