Silent Killers Amidst The Fast And The Furious

Attention to Ebola is important. The virus’s ability to easily cross regional and national borders makes it a significant threat to global health and national security. The swift and aggressive international response to the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola virus, which has killed at least 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, has been laudable and has resulted in positive outcomes, such as reduced disease transmission and strengthened global health and coordination systems. For example, staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States, including those from various divisions at the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, have put in more than 40,000 work days on the 2014 Ebola response in many parts of West Africa — a truly successful and important horizontal approach to global health. But what about other silent pandemics that kill slowly, but surely — pandemics like non-communicable diseases that also spread through networks, and which in 2010 caused two-thirds of deaths and 54 percent of disability-adjusted life years worldwide? We first posed this question in 2009, in the context of the H1N1 (or “swine flu”) pandemic. In light of its presentation as a public health emergency of uncertain scope, duration, and effect, the H1N1 pandemic generated a similarly rapid international response and media attention as Ebola is doing now. Curious about how the global spread and response to H1N1 compare...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Global Health Public Health chronic disease Diabetes Ebola H1N1 Source Type: blogs