PRI: Are we ready for the next epidemic?
“Epidemics of new infectious diseases seem to be occurring regularly. First there was SARS in 2003, then swine flu in 2009, and Ebola in 2014. Now, there’s Zika. ‘The lesson of the last 10 years is that there’s always something else,’ says Dr. Stephen Redd, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Health Preparedness and Response. ‘We can’t predict what the next infectious disease epidemic will be or when and where it will occur.’ … One key preparation is CDC’s Emergency Operations Center, or EOC…” (Graitcer, 11/17).