The Global Ebola Crisis

Three impoverished countries, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, all with weak health infrastructure are bearing the brunt of what is becoming the most significant public health emergency experienced in Africa this century.

Ebola – community public health failure

The response to Ebola in the longer term must be linked to the broader effort to strengthen health systems including workforce training. Functional primary health systems that are needed for infectious and non-communicable should be part of the response.

Ivory Coast sits on the front line waiting for cases to cross its borders. With cases arising in US and Europe, Africa’s Ebola problem is rapidly becoming a Global Ebola problem.

Ebola isn’t terribly contagious but until patients can be safely identified, isolated and provided with appropriate care it will not be possible to bring this epidemic under control. That exposure has been killing the very people who have been committed to help sufferers, but who have not had adequate basic protective clothing and materials which is a cruel irony. The outbreak has killed more than 3,860 people, with more than 200 health workers among the victims.

This epidemic has exposed a major weakness in our commitments to “One Global Health” – the inequality between the developed and developing world health infrastructure.