How can health systems be strengthened to control and prevent an Ebola outbreak? a narrative review
Issue Date
2015-11-24Subjects
Ebola virusoutbreak
prevention
control and prevention
disease prevention
control
health system
low- and middle-income countries
L431 Health Policy
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The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases are now more than ever considered threats to public health systems. There have been over 20 outbreaks of Ebola in the past 40 years. Only recently, the World Health Organization has declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in West Africa, with a projected estimate of 1.2 million deaths expected in the next 6 months. Ebola virus is a highly virulent pathogen, often fatal in humans and non-human primates. Ebola is now a great priority for global health security and often becomes fatal if left untreated. This study employed a narrative review. Three major databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Global Health were searched using both ‘text-words’ and ‘thesaurus terms’. Evidence shows that low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are not coping well with the current challenges of Ebola, not only because they have poor and fragile systems but also because there are poor infectious disease surveillance and response systems in place. The identification of potential cases is problematic, particularly in the aspects of contact tracing, infection control, and prevention, prior to the diagnosis of the case. This review therefore aims to examine whether LMICs’ health systems would be able to control and manage Ebola in future and identifies two key elements of health systems strengthening that are needed to ensure the robustness of the health system to respond effectively.Citation
Regmi K, Gilbert R, Thunhurst C (2015) 'How can health systems be strengthened to control and prevent an Ebola outbreak?', Infection Ecology and Epidemiology, 5 (28877), pp.-.Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPubMed ID
26609690PubMed Central ID
PMC4660933Additional Links
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/iee.v5.28877https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4660933/
Type
ArticleLanguage
enISSN
2000-8686EISSN
2000-8686ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.3402/iee.v5.28877
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