Foreign Policy: Ebola Returns in Congo, a Test of ‘Next Time’
Laurie Garrett, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations

“In a remote forested region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ebola virus has resurfaced … This is not a drill. … Compared to the slow pace of response in the Guinea 2014 outbreak, this reaction appears to be swifter and more efficient. … Now the epidemiology skills of the newly reformed international response capacity will be put to the test, as teams of public health experts hit the ground, tracing all the contacts the three deceased individuals had and testing those individuals for Ebola infection. If luck and good sense have reigned, the numbers of additionally infected will be small, quarantines and vaccination will slow further spread, and the world will be able to heave a sigh of relief that the up-to-90-percent lethal Ebola virus was stopped in its tracks. But make no mistake, this is a test of whether we are ready” (5/12).