William Isdale speaks with Lawrence Gostin about the lessons we can learn from the global response to last year's Ebola outbreak and the future of global health.
Governments in West Africa and international aid agencies should help facilitate adoptions locally and provide better health care and education to support entire communities.
A year ago, Dr Kent Brantly became the first person treated for Ebola in the US. The director of Emory University’s Serious Communicable Disease Unit looks back at we have – and haven’t – learned.
Although Sierra Leone is not yet officially ebola-free, there are significant improvements. Economic recovery discussions have also started. Care needs to be taken to ensure broader societal benefit.
In the science world, laboratories are essential but safety precautions should be taken to prevent any incidents like the Ebola outbreak or biochemical attacks.
Celebrities help make causes known to larger audiences and can be effective in obtaining pledges from policymakers. Yet their simplified advocacy messages can lead to ineffective or harmful policies.
Ebola has been blamed for a surge in untreated malaria cases in west Africa that could have led to an excess numbers of deaths from malaria, greater than the total caused by the Ebola virus.
Along with better strategies to respond to outbreaks in human populations, we need a stronger focus on surveillance in animals to identify infectious diseases before they pose a risk to human health.
Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard University, and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia
Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Emerging and Zoonotic Infections, and Professor of Neurology, University of Liverpool