Global Community Must Avoid Complacency, Remain Proactive In Face Of Disease Threats

Nature: Viral complacency
Editorial Board

“…Too often in the past, the world has stumbled from epidemic to epidemic, failing to learn the lessons of the last. Emergency responses to the latest threat capture headlines, research, and political attention. But too often this attention quickly fades. … Following the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, a slew of commissions and reports laid out a broad consensus on what needs to be done for a more proactive and sustained preparedness against epidemic threats. These measures include reinforcing public health systems, surveillance, and diagnostic capacities, and training health workers to identify and respond early to disease outbreaks. Weaknesses in these areas have been identified as factors that allowed what was a small Ebola outbreak to spiral out of control. … The big risk is that as the Ebola epidemic fades from memory, the sustained political commitment and funding required will not materialize, and business as usual will resume. That must not be allowed to happen” (4/5).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

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