Columnists

The Ebola fight is on-target

Ebola is a recent phenomenon for most people. Their thinking might also be that the Ebola horse has left the barn and our government, specifically the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cannot catch it.

For others who have watched Ebola emerge, however, we can see CDC involvement, even without policy support.

Here, the story of Ebola is one of worldwide public health deficiency, delicate trust in post-conflict nations, an exhausted health-care workforce, and widespread ambivalence about our duty to the global community. When CDC Director Tom Frieden said our effort to beat Ebola depends on our ability to stop the epidemic in West Africa, he was not suggesting that we tune out and let others handle it.

Is CDC doing a good job responding to Ebola? Yes, and it'll need our help.

First, public health is our collective responsibility, and we must assure the conditions that improve the health of populations. CDC is our primary public health agency, but it is not the lead U.S. agency for international engagement.

Most of the public health presence around the world is represented by non-governmental organizations funded by donor organizations and nations. CDC is an easy target for our frustrations or fears around Ebola because it is likely the only U.S. public health agency we know about.

We are generally oblivious to outcomes like clean water, air, safe workplaces, a trained health workforce and outbreak response. We fail to notice that school-based measles and whooping cough outbreaks are quickly handled, thanks to local public health departments, or the progress made in reducing infections in hospitals.

Our ignorance produces a backdrop for the mounting fear witnessed since Thomas Eric Duncan became known to us when he sought treatment at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on September 30. The CDC responded quickly, providing such resources as epidemic intelligence officers and public health advisers for tracing contacts. It also provided procedures for hospital infection control, detailed Ebola screening checklists, laboratory precautions and quarantine protocols, and is now managing the airport screening processes.

As Ebola emerged in West Africa, CDC epidemiologists were soon on the ground there investigating. As ours and other governments have slowly become more engaged, CDC could increase important human resources for West Africa; hundreds of epidemiologists, health educators, and public health advisers are needed.

If we recognize anything about CDC's Ebola work, it is likely only that of crisis response. We do not see the longer-term investment in sustainable public health because we have not made this a national or international priority.

But our complaints and demands to close our borders, paired with a lack of interest in the challenge among our friends in West Africa, will likely be a barrier to success with Ebola or other emerging world health issues.

To be fully successful in our fight against Ebola, Americans must call upon their government to invest in sustained public health here and in West Africa. They must expect our U.S. hospitals to systematically train, prepare and supply the front-line health workers to recognize Ebola, protect themselves and control the spread. And they must support the nongovernmental organizations that are doing the work on the ground.

CDC is doing a good job, but it is not alone in this, and all Americans must engage fully as members of our global community.

------------v------------

Beth Meyerson is an assistant professor of health policy and management at Indiana University's School of Public Health and co-director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention.

Editorial on 10/25/2014

Upcoming Events