When it comes to Ebola, much of the media’s attention has suddenly shifted from West Africa – where the death toll from the killer virus is expected to surpass 4,500 this week – to the United States and Europe – where fewer than 0.10 percent of the fatalities have occurred.

“If the crisis had hit some other region it probably would have been handled very differently,” said former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.  “In fact when you look at the evolution of the crisis, the international community really woke up when the disease got to America and Europe.  And yet we should have known that in this interconnected world it was only a matter of time.”

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the current outbreak on March 22, with cases being reported from December 2013.  But it attracted very little concern from the developed world, as the disease seemed to remain in the poorest countries of West Africa.  Annan faults Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia for taking too long to ask for outside help, and the developed world for taking too long to offer it. 

The international response is still taking shape.  It’s been a month since US President Barack Obama promised 17 new treatment centers for Liberia a month ago and the first has yet to take shape.

“Tell the international community that they have failed Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and they are still failing,” said Tolbert Nyenswah, the head of Liberia’s Ebola response.  “They knew our health system did not have the capacity.”

And yet, the Americans are incredibly busy.  Liberia’s only laboratory capable of testing blood samples for Ebola was located in a bat-infested World War II building filled with rusty cages formerly used for test animals.  The Americans rewired it, installed Internet access, fixed the plumbing, chased the bats away, and updated the equipment – it now tests 70 samples a day, and they’re hoping to up that to 100.

The US is even overlooking long-standing grudges, and is welcoming Cuba’s doctors to the fight.  Havana promised to send 450 medical and support staff to West Africa.  Cuba is also hosting a hosting a regional summit on the virus with Latin American allies next week.

Meanwhile, the WHO is getting proactive in countries that have yet to see one case of Ebola, setting up rapid response teams, medical training, and laboratories in four nations that directly border the worst-affected areas: Ivory Coast, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Senegal (which did have one patient who survived and has since been declared Ebola-free).

“We will ramp up our support to the countries.  We will work with them on a plan,” said the UN World Health Organization’s (WHO) Isabelle Nuttall.  The WHO also says the rest of West Africa must get ready and prepare for Ebola’s arrival.