The continuing spread of Ebola is raising serious concerns about the world's ability to contain the virus, and the World Health Organisation has said the number of Ebola cases could rise to 20000 before the numbers stabilise.
While the world is battling to find a cure, the reluctance to act on the ground is something that will come back to haunt us.
Though humankind can send a rover to Mars, we are struggling to combat Ebola .
The three most affected countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - remain the world's ghettoes, and patients there do not get the same treatment as those in Western hospitals.
The head of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), Dr Joanne Liu, told the UN: "We have been losing for the past six months. We must win over the next three."
She called on wealthy nations to dispatch specialised biological disaster response teams to West Africa , a region that is now also facing severe food shortages.
We fully agree with Liu that what we have now is "a global coalition of inaction".
How many must die before the response is equal to the crisis?
Closing borders and merely paying lip service is not enough. There must be a global commitment to an effective strategy.
While the West can be criticised for its lax response, this crisis also exposes weak and corrupt African leadership.
Many of the continent's leaders are more prepared to arm militias than invest in public infrastructure.
Now is the time for Africa to get its act together. Let us stand up and find ways to help our brothers and sisters, and all those infected and affected by the epidemic.
We fully agree with former top UN health official David Nabarro that "every country in the world needs to be thinking what can we do to help".
If we do not act now, a virus we imagine is confined to a "remote" part of the world could engulf much of the rest of it. And, by then, it might be too late to act.
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