ABSTRACT

The 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola Epidemic was and remains the world’s largest outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease. The United States Government (USG) spent $2.7 billion responding to the outbreak, predominantly through the deployment of the US Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense. Each of these USG agencies, as well as several others, wrote substantive post-operation reports, including myriad recommendations for how to improve interdepartmental coordination and collaboration during future disease outbreak responses. However, to date, no effort has been made to compare and contrast these post-operation reports and their respective recommendations, with a view to finding synergies between them. This essay evaluates the various reports in the public domain, and finds that four areas are consistently referenced: the need to clarify roles and responsibilities between USG agencies, reinforce data sharing and surveillance, perform joint planning, and improve communication and coordination with external partners. These four areas therefore represent high-priority policy interventions for ensuring the efficacy and efficiency of the USG’s future interventions in response to critical public health threats.

摘要

2013 年至 2016 年西非埃博拉疫情过去和现在仍然是世界上最大的埃博拉病毒病爆发。美国政府 (USG) 为应对疫情花费了 27 亿美元，主要是通过美国国际开发署、疾病控制与预防中心和国防部的部署。这些 USG 机构以及其他几个机构都撰写了大量的术后报告，包括关于如何在未来的疾病爆发应对过程中改善跨部门协调与合作的无数​​建议。然而，迄今为止，还没有努力比较和对比这些术后报告及其各自的建议，以期找到它们之间的协同作用。本文评估了公共领域的各种报告，并发现四个领域始终被提及：需要明确 USG 机构之间的角色和职责，加强数据共享和监视，执行联合规划，以及改善与外部合作伙伴的沟通和协调。因此，这四个领域代表了高度优先的政策干预措施，以确保 USG 未来应对重大公共卫生威胁的干预措施的效力和效率。