Global Health Policy

President Obama recently announced an increased effort by the United States to respond to the spread of Ebola in West Africa as the scale of the outbreak continues to grow. What has the global response been so far? How has the United States contributed? What will the response be going…

President Obama announced an increased effort by the United States to respond to the spread of Ebola in West Africa as the scale of the outbreak continues to grow. What has the global response been so far? How has the United States contributed? What will the response be going forward, in the coming weeks and months? What key lessons can be learned from this outbreak, and what can be learned by comparing the outbreak to other large-scale disasters?

In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses the President’s commitment of troops to combat the Ebola outbreak and explains the Department of Defense’s widespread role in global health activities.

A new Kaiser Family Foundation survey about the U.S. role in global health finds the public puts meeting basic needs such as improving access to clean water and food and helping children at the top of the priority list for U.S. global health spending. Addressing the Ebola outbreak in West…

This survey about the U.S. role in global health finds.Americans’ top priorities for global health funding focus on meeting basic human needs such as improving access to clean water and food and helping children. Addressing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is also a top priority. Some high profile issues such as malaria and reproductive health rank further down the list.. A large majority of the public overestimates the share of the U.S. federal budget spent on foreign aid.

In this column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses the Christie, Cuomo rift with the federal government over Ebola public health measures and the need for uniform national policies to ease the public’s fears.

This report finds that donor governments provided US$1.3 billion in bilateral funding for family planning programs in low and middle income countries in 2013 – a 19 percent increase from 2012. Donor governments also gave an additional $454 million in core contributions to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the primary multilateral organization addressing family planning. Funding has risen since the London Summit on Family Planning in 2012, although most of the increase was driven by a small number of donors.

Ebola virus has a unique set of characteristics that determine how and why its spreads, and how deadly it can be. To better understand Ebola, this infographic compares it to twelve other infectious diseases that continue to represent public health challenges today and asks and answers five key questions about the disease.

This fact sheet provides an overview of U.S. government global health policy and engagement.