With Epidemic 'Outpacing' Response, WHO Chief Warns Ebola Outbreak Will 'Get Worse Before It Gets Better'

[Brenda]

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros ⁠Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Monday that the swiftly spreading Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda “will get worse before it gets better,” as a deadly delay in detecting infections has responders to the epidemic “playing catch-up.”

Taking aim at Trump’s evisceration of key public health agencies and programs, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said last week: “Ebola does not wait for bureaucratic reorganizations. It spreads when surveillance systems are weakened, health workers are laid off, clinics lack protective equipment, and communities lose the trusted partners who help detect and contain outbreaks before they become public health emergencies.”

“This is the perfect storm President Trump created,” she continued. “He recklessly dismantled USAID, withheld and slashed other United States assistance to the region, fired critical staff, and created global health chaos. This is not efficiency. It is dangerous neglect.”

“The United States spent years building the relationships, supply chains, laboratories, and community health networks that help stop deadly diseases at their source,” DeLauro added. “The Trump administration tore into that capacity and now wants to pretend the consequences were unforeseeable.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/who-ebola-warning

People tend to downplay these outbreaks because they're "way over there in Africa." My response is: go read a book about the spread of disease. I'm sure there's some recent ones (if you can make sure they're not AI written slop) but The Hot Zone and The Coming Plague are two excellent books.

And then of course there was Covid19. It was here in November 2019 (or earlier) when the entire staff of an Atlanta hospital ER came down with it. Very late response by the US.

Let's hope we don't have to go through another pandemic.

[chowder66]

1. K&R