The response to the Ebola outbreak in East Africa, as troubled as it has been, offers signs that the world has learned key lessons from the last massive outbreak of the disease and from the Covid-19 pandemic, public health experts say.
Their conclusion comes despite the fact the Bundibugyo species of the virus spread unidentified in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda for months, and that hastily erected treatment centers continue to lack even rudimentary medical supplies.
“If the world earned an F on the response to the West Africa outbreak — then we’re at maybe a C+ now,” said Suerie Moon, a global health researcher who led an international forensic review of the response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which lasted two years and killed more than 11,000 people.
Among the improvements, she and other experts say, are increased coordination and cooperation among governments and scientists, and more investment in the infrastructure to make fast science possible. Money has already been raised for research on potential vaccines and treatments for Bundibugyo.
“The fact that we’re even talking about clinical trials is a world away from where we were in 2014,” said Dr. Daniel Bausch, who has responded to more than a dozen different hemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Africa over a career in infectious disease. “We have to remember that it’s not all doom and gloom.”
But there are conspicuous gaps, notably in sustained funding for research into treatments and guarantees they will be available to anyone who needs help.
