The rush to halt the spread of Ebola in West Africa is not only about saving lives, it’s also about keeping the epidemic from growing into a broader humanitarian crisis, according to a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) panel that included two Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) faculty members.
“The rush is to control the epidemic before there’s food insecurity and population migration,” said Michael VanRooyen, professor in the Department of Global Health and Population at HSPH and Director, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
The September 9, 2014 program was part of HKS’s John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum series sponsored by the Institute of Politics. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, HKS ’71, of Liberia joined the conversation via video conference. Sheila Burke, adjunct lecturer at HKS, was moderator.
Dyann Wirth, Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases and chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at HSPH, said two vaccines that have shown promise in primates are being tested for safety and may be used without clinical trials, but there is no certainty that they will be effective in humans.
Wirth and VanRooyen said it is likely Ebola will reach the United States and other developed nations and infect a few people, but the advanced health systems and monitoring in those countries should keep the infectious disease in check.
Watch the webcast: Ebola: Can We Avoid A Global Pandemic?
Read the Harvard Gazette article: Ebola’s ripple effects