How to stop the next epidemic
- 5 years ago
It has been one year since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was recognised. The virus is blood-borne; the world’s next big disease could be airborne, which would be much harder to contain – particularly in our globalised, urbanised world. So when the next epidemic breaks out, how do we prevent it from spreading around the world? It is easier said than done.
First: Early detection is critical, and it relies on good surveillance. But only 64 of the 194 member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have the surveillance procedures, laboratories and data-management capabilities required by the International Health Regulations. Improvements in things like basic public health infrastructure are needed, and indeed progress can be seen in places: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam have sharpened up; and America plans to help a total of 30 countries to shape up.
Second: A swift response to an outbreak – which might involve getting skilled people, equipment and money to the right places – can potentially save more lives than drugs and vaccines. At the height of the crisis some epidemiologists were talking about deaths in the hundreds of thousands. It has killed 10,000 people and infected some 25,000, but it could have been fewer – previous outbreaks of Ebola killed dozens or hundreds, not thousands. The World Health Organisation and the global community were slow to recognise that there was an international public health emergency.
Third: effective global coordination is needed. The UN created a special body to do this for Ebola, but many feel that this is the sort of role that the World Health Organisation should have been able to play. Some think it failed so badly in the case of Ebola that it needs a more clearly defined mission, along with better funding. It could also do more to utilise resources from the private sector: FedEx and Vodafone were keen to help but did not know how, and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline offered to make its vaccine available for trials early in the outbreak, but was ignored.
Ebola tore through West Africa like a forest fire. This fire has been put out, but the embers are still burning. Experts are concerned that the number of cases of Ebola has not been declining at the rate they would like. It would be dangerous to be complacent at this stage. Global health security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
First: Early detection is critical, and it relies on good surveillance. But only 64 of the 194 member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have the surveillance procedures, laboratories and data-management capabilities required by the International Health Regulations. Improvements in things like basic public health infrastructure are needed, and indeed progress can be seen in places: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Vietnam have sharpened up; and America plans to help a total of 30 countries to shape up.
Second: A swift response to an outbreak – which might involve getting skilled people, equipment and money to the right places – can potentially save more lives than drugs and vaccines. At the height of the crisis some epidemiologists were talking about deaths in the hundreds of thousands. It has killed 10,000 people and infected some 25,000, but it could have been fewer – previous outbreaks of Ebola killed dozens or hundreds, not thousands. The World Health Organisation and the global community were slow to recognise that there was an international public health emergency.
Third: effective global coordination is needed. The UN created a special body to do this for Ebola, but many feel that this is the sort of role that the World Health Organisation should have been able to play. Some think it failed so badly in the case of Ebola that it needs a more clearly defined mission, along with better funding. It could also do more to utilise resources from the private sector: FedEx and Vodafone were keen to help but did not know how, and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline offered to make its vaccine available for trials early in the outbreak, but was ignored.
Ebola tore through West Africa like a forest fire. This fire has been put out, but the embers are still burning. Experts are concerned that the number of cases of Ebola has not been declining at the rate they would like. It would be dangerous to be complacent at this stage. Global health security is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.