Policy Debate | International Responses to Global Epidemics: Ebola and Beyond

Rull, Monica; Kickbusch, Ilona; Lauer, Helen

doi:10.4000/poldev.2178

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…We now know that the local and international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was slow (Rull et al, 2015; Wilkinson & Leach, 2015), or ‘terribly slow’ (Benton & Dionne, 2015, p. 230), that there is a new spectre of protectionism arising from Ebola (Bangura, 2014), and that the ZMapp experimental drug’s success becomes ‘the first time that a drug has shown therapeutic efficacy against Ebola in humans’ (Zhang et al, 2014, p. 987), although more research on the drug’s efficacy in humans ought to be done. We also know much of the science and history, and scale of the Ebola epidemic (WHO, 2014a) as well as the macro-economic (The World Bank Group, 2014) and micro-diamond mining (Maconachie & Hilson, 2015) impacts of the disease on West Africa.…”

Section: The Research Gap and How It Is Addressedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease

Obeng‐Odoom

Bockarie

2018

Social Change

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Public health has much to contribute to the global understanding and action on the past, present and future of Ebola but it is currently constrained by the construction of the 'risk' of catching Ebola. There has been a consequential emphasis on 'health systems', which has deflected attention from social alienation and implosion of social ties at the family, community, national and regional levels, instead justifying a colonial top-down response strategy. Indeed, that neglects class and social relations. It follows that the response strategy has reinforced social barriers that stand in the way of the development of social medicine, collective self-reliance in Africa, empowering social ties, social protection and socially inclusive development. What is needed, then, is not public health but critical postcolonial public health to pull down these impediments and develop socially sensitive alternatives that prioritise social relations and ties, inclusivity of diversity and complexity in African societies.

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Section: The Research Gap and How It Is Addressedmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease

Obeng‐Odoom

Bockarie

2018

Social Change

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“…The failure to initially contain the Ebola pandemic in west Africa focused attention on weak international public health systems and epidemic response capabilities 5. The failure to respond appropriately and at scale is not confined to epidemics of international concern, but has also been a long-standing weakness at national and subnational levels, even with regard to commonly occurring pathogens such as measles, cholera and malaria 6. Delayed detection and declaration, decision-making based on political and economic considerations, normalisation of epidemics as routine and poor coordination and resourcing have all been posited as contributors to poor epidemic response 6.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards systematic evaluation of epidemic responses during humanitarian crises: a scoping review of existing public health evaluation frameworks

2020

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Epidemics continue to pose a significant public health threat to populations in low and middle-income countries. However, little is known about the appropriateness and performance of response interventions in such settings. We undertook a rapid scoping review of public health evaluation frameworks for emergency settings in order to judge their suitability for assessing epidemic response. Our search identified a large variety of frameworks. However, very few are suitable for framing the response to an epidemic, or its evaluation. We propose a generic epidemic framework that draws on elements of existing frameworks. We believe that this framework may potentially be of use in closing the gap between increasing global epidemic risk and the ability to respond effectively.

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“…The WHO functions as a central repository and conduit for information about new diseases and outbreaks, releasing updates, and providing urgent international expertise through its Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) 27 . A given outbreak may then be declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which “constitutes a public health risk to other states and potentially requires an international response” and serves as a call to urgent action, international expertise, attention, and funding, though these are not legally bound as with the IHR 27‐29 …”

Section: The Public Health Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Officials and agencies must fully disclose what is, and what is not, known about a public health emergency to facilitate the most robust yet proportionate response. There are often no clear incentives for states to declare epidemics, and governments already struggling to meet the long‐term needs of citizens and facing trade limitations or damage to their tourist industries may be hesitant to do so, further underscoring the need for transparency 29,33 …”

Section: The Public Health Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Coronavirus disease 2019: International public health considerations

et al. 2020

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Meeting: None to disclose.Funding and support: By JACEP Open policy, all authors are required to disclose any and all commercial, financial, and other relationships in any way related to the subject of this article as per ICMJE conflict of interest guidelines (see www.icmje.org). The authors have stated that no such relationships exist. AbstractOn December 31, 2019, the Chinese government announced an outbreak of a novel coronavirus, recently named COVID-19. During the following weeks the international medical community has witnessed with unprecedented coverage the public health response both domestically by the Chinese government, and on an international scale as cases have spread to dozens of countries. While much regarding the virus and the Chinese public health response is still unknown, national and public health institutions globally are preparing for a pandemic. As cases and spread of the virus grow, emergency and other front-line providers may become more anxious about the possibility of encountering a potential case. This review describes the tenets of a public health response to an infectious outbreak by using recent historical examples and also by characterizing what is known about the ongoing response to the COVID-19 outbreak.The intent of the review is to empower the practitioner to monitor and evaluate the local, national and global public health response to an emerging infectious disease.

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Policy Debate | International Responses to Global Epidemics: Ebola and Beyond

Cited by 19 publications

References 17 publications

The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease

The Political Economy of the Ebola Virus Disease

Towards systematic evaluation of epidemic responses during humanitarian crises: a scoping review of existing public health evaluation frameworks

Coronavirus disease 2019: International public health considerations

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