Squashing the next epidemic; how other countries eliminated recent outbreaks.

Squashing the next epidemic; how other countries eliminated recent outbreaks.

I am certain that most of us have had enough pandemics or epidemics, after covid-19.  I never thought we would be told to stay home and hide from one another to prevent the pandemic from overloading our hospital systems and potentially, harming us with a poorly understood pathogen.

I just returned from vacation and completed the book, The Premonition, A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis who wrote the book during the pandemic.   He talks about pandemic preparedness in the USA as well as other countries and what went right but also what went wrong.   I would highly recommend the book.  Apparently, President George Bush Jr. had initiated the program, something I didn’t know although other countries with fewer resources than we had apparently got it more right than we did.

Recently, the NY Times wrote an article discussing how other countries shut down outbreaks, even with the most fragile of health systems.  Perhaps we can learn from them.

Check out the article below

Epidemics That Weren’t: How Countries Shut Down Recent Outbreaks

Some of the most fragile health systems in the world can teach us ways to respond to public health threats early and effectively.

by Stephanie Nolen

Stephanie Nolen, a global health reporter, has reported on pandemics around the world, including H.I.V., cholera and yellow fever.

Published Dec. 27, 2022

When Ebola swept through the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018, it was a struggle to track cases. Dr. Billy Yumaine, a public health official, recalls steady flows of people moving back and forth across the border with Uganda while others hid sick family members in their homes because they feared the authorities. It took at least a week to get test results, and health officials had difficulty isolating sick people while they waited.

It took two years for the country to bring that outbreak under control, and more than 2,300 people died.

A similar disaster threatened the D.R.C. last September. Members of a family in North Kivu Province fell ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea, one after the other. Then their neighbors became sick, too.

Read more