STAT: What the fading Ebola epidemic can teach us about the looming Zika crisis
Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

“…Ebola showed us how important it is to make sure that our nation and others have the capacity to rapidly detect, respond to, and prevent disease outbreaks. Yet CDC has had to borrow resources from its ongoing, vital work on Ebola to launch and sustain our fight against Zika. The funds we’ve borrowed from are essential to find and stop Ebola as embers of the epidemic continue to smolder in West Africa, to respond to new cases and clusters of Ebola, and to build each country’s capacity to detect and respond to health threats. … We must now wage an efficient and effective fight against Zika while continuing to strengthen early-warning and rapid-response systems around the world and continuously improve preparedness for the inevitable future emerging disease outbreaks we will face. CDC is using borrowed money on borrowed time to support a comprehensive Zika response while keeping a watchful eye on Ebola and other health threats. The stakes are too high not to fully commit to protecting America’s health” (7/13).