Shortages of health workers in Uganda have fueled the spread of Ebola, said World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti during the World Health Summit on Sunday.

The spread of the virus “continued for a couple of months in a peripheral area before it was detected,” she said, adding that this is because there is not enough capacity in these areas for community health workers or nurses to pick up on and report unusual patterns of disease.

Because of this, she argued, the global community should prioritize ensuring countries have adequate levels of health workers as not only important to the country where they reside, but also as a broader public good, as they serve as a base-level network of disease surveillance.