Strengthening the Detection of and Early Response to Public Health Emergencies: Lessons from the West African Ebola Epidemic

Abstract

Mark Siedner and colleagues reflect on the early response to the Ebola epidemic and lessons that can be learned for future epidemics.

The path to longer and healthier lives for all Africans by 2030: the Lancet Commission on the future of health in sub-Saharan Africa

“…233,234 Such community action and "people science" played a major role in several areas to control the epidemic. 235 On a positive note, just as in the AIDS epidemic in Africa, for the first time during an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever, research was conducted successfully on vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and social behaviour.…”

Implementation research: a mentoring programme to improve laboratory quality in Cambodia

“…In the past 25 years, many international donors have committed such resources to improve laboratory capacity, but have done so with a focus on disease specific emergencies, such as human immunodeficiency virus epidemic. However, as the 2013–2016 Ebola virus disease epidemic and other outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases have highlighted, there remains a need to improve laboratory preparedness and practice on a global scale with a focus on laboratory capacity in a non-disease specific manner 30 . If the international health community is committed to disease detection, surveillance and pandemic preparedness, a more proactive approach is required.…”

Political drivers of epidemic response: foreign healthcare workers and the 2014 Ebola outbreak

“…No published studies of foreign government responses to 2014 Ebola were identified during this research. Public health experts' individual reasons for joining 2014 Ebola response missions have been evaluated (Rexroth et al, ), as have affected countries' own responses (Benton and Dionne, ) and WHO's response capabilities (Gronke, ; Osterholm, Moore, and Gostin, ; Siedner et al, ; van de Pas and van Belle, ). But the logics of donor countries' medical resource deployments also warrant exploration, given their importance to halting severe infectious disease epidemics.…”