Council on Foreign Relations: Absent More International Support, Ebola Will Continue to Spread Beyond Congo
John Campbell, Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa Policy Studies, discusses a recent article published in Foreign Policy that makes “the point that disease outbreaks in states with weak governance and high rates of poverty often spread to other countries,” using the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as an example. Campbell notes, “The authors advocate increased international health assistance to fragile states such as Congo, especially by the United States. … They suggest that increased assistance has the potential to improve governance and stability in affected areas, both of which are in the interest of the United States. … However distant the outbreak may seem at present, its far-reaching effects are yet more reason why aggressive and substantial support for disease-fighting efforts must be advanced” (7/23).