In December 2012, a two-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea, became sick and died just a few days later. Within a week, his mother, sister and grandmother were all dead too. Several of those who attended the funerals along with a healthcare worker also became ill. By March, dozens had become sick and died, and the disease had spread from the little border town to nearby Liberia and Sierra Leone. Only then did authorities realize what they were seeing: ebola.
Over the past year, the world has watched in horror as the virus swept across the west African countries and killed nearly half of those it infected. The virus had never before been seen in this region, and the areas in which it first struck were torn by civil unrest. Impoverished as they were, their health infrastructures were weak and damaged. Doctors in Guinea had never seen an illness like this before, and neither the governments nor the international public health community recognized the ominous early signs that a devastating epidemic with terrifyingly high mortality rates was about to kill more than 10,000 men, women and children.
The international response was unprecedented once the killer was identified as ebola, and these efforts helped get the outbreak under control. However, the fast spread of the disease as it went unrecognized and the number of lives lost revealed critical weakness in the global public health system. According to a recent paper published in the online journal “PLOS Medicine,” earlier recognition and a more aggressive response may have significantly lessened the toll.
The paper’s authors, who were experts from Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health and the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, made several recommendations for addressing future public health emergencies, including closer attention to health system capabilities in affected regions, early identification of the need for international assistance, maintaining close communication with local authorities and organizations, developing culturally appropriate treatments and processes, strengthening ties with communities, ensuring adequate financial and human resources are available and supporting the development of stronger health infrastructure in underdeveloped and developing countries.
Learning how to better implement a public health response and reach those who most need help with the medications and treatments that could save their lives may help prevent the spread of infections and diseases and protect future populations.
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