Over the last year West Africa has suffered the worst Ebola outbreak in history involving over 22,000 cases and nearly 9,000 deaths. In a Policy Forum article published in PLOS Medicine, Mark Siedner from Harvard Medical School, Boston, and colleagues reflect on the early public health response to the epidemic and draw lessons for future public health emergencies.
While the international response to the Ebola outbreak has become an example of the great potential of the global public health community, the slow initial response to the epidemic also revealed critical weaknesses. In their article the authors highlight key challenges that were faced and argue that the international community must address these issues in preparation for future public health emergency responses. The authors highlight, weak national health systems in Ebola-affected countries, limitations in declaring the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, difficulties in engaging local communities, and international funding deficiencies to deal with public health emergencies.
The authors note, "[w]hile current efforts to bring the [Ebola virus disease] epidemic under control should be widely applauded, the delayed response during the early stages of the [Ebola virus disease] epidemic in West Africa exemplifies not only the danger posed by disease outbreaks in states with weak health systems but also their widespread impact in an increasingly globalized world."
The authors conclude, "[t]he power of global health law and global health institutions will remain seriously unrealized and deeply compromised if the Ebola epidemic does not spur fundamental reform."
Article: Strengthening the Detection of and Early Response to Public Health Emergencies: Lessons from the West African Ebola Epidemic, Siedner MJ, Gostin LO, Cranmer HH, Kraemer JD (2015) PLoS Med 12(3): e1001804. doi:10.1371/journal. pmed.1001804, published 24 March 2015.
No funding was received for this work.
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.