Bill Gates describes the Ebola epidemic as both global failure and a wake-up call at Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.

Ebola virus disease or Ebola is caused by ebolaviruses. Signs and symptoms stars between two days and three weeks after contracting the disease.

It has killed 11000 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 He said that there were plenty of technology tools that could be used to contain the spread of a virus and governments should learn from how nations prepare for war.

Countries that are part of the NATO frequently run exercises to check if they are ready if a world war breaks out, but the last serious simulation of an epidemic in the United States took place way back in 2002.

Technology can play an important role in preventing the spread of virus he said. Mobile technology can be extensively used to report where the disease breaks out and satellite mapping can collate where the problem areas are.

Advances in biology are tremendous and it has cut the time to quickly develop the vaccine for new viruses.

“There is a significant chance that an epidemic of a substantially more infectious disease will occur sometime in the next 20 years” he said.

He said, even if the system has worked out well for Ebola but it may fail to contain more infectious disease. He further added that he believe that we can solve this problem just like we have solved the other problems.

“The United Nations should empower and fund a global institution to coordinate the creation of a warning and response system, disease surveillance database, and more research on drugs, vaccines, and diagnostic tests.”

“By building a global warning and response system, we can prepare for it and prevent millions of deaths,” Gates concluded.