In Quick Response, Mali Thwarts an Ebola Outbreak

When the rise of Ebola in West Africa strict protocols when handling those who were dying or had died from the disease, public health officials began working with anthropologists and other social scientists to increase trust and influence people’s willingness to seek treatment. At the center of the success was the social scientist's recommendations for burial services which addressed concerns about first responders disrespecting the dead. Today, these social scientists are providing similar consult for the Covid-19 pandemic.

In March when fewer than 100 coronavirus infections had been found in the U.K, researchers in Cambridge decided to begin sequencing coronavirus samples as part of an "unparalleled surveillance system for Covid" that could identify and track possible mutations or the virus. This effort – which involves labs sending leftover material from testing swabs to the researcher's genomics lab where they are stored and analyzed – has culminated in hundreds of thousands of genome sequences and "sounded an alarm for the world" about the new fast-spreading variant.

Connecting villagers to local governments and researchers is important to controlling possible disease outbreaks at their source. The One Health disease protection program, also known as PODD, uses funding from Ending Pandemics, a San Francisco nonprofit, to run an app and system through which villagers and local officials can interface with health organizations. A special app developed translates local languages and transmits information back to organizations, agencies, and researchers at local universities.

India is facing a significant uptick in cases of dengue and malaria, but Sri Lanka and China are providing models to combat the increase. Although both countries used different approaches, the main takeaways include creating an early warning system, collaborating across sectors, and determining which cases originate locally or are from migration.

With climate change, population pressures and mobilization epidemics will occur more frequently, and past ones have proven to be disastrous and expensive. The Center for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is focused on developing vaccines to viruses such as Ebola, as well as creating a fast approval path for future vaccines and helping increase global preparedness for future epidemics.

Local agencies tasked with controlling disease-spreading organisms are releasing sterile male mosquitoes to help reduce the pest’s population and prevent the spread of dengue. This strategy has decreased the mosquito population by about 82% in parts of Southern California, marking the first time in eight years that the population has declined instead of increased.

The eradication of smallpox offers lessons and insight for health officials and governments focused on containing the novel coronavirus and avoiding future pandemics. Although COVID-19 presents unique challenges – such as asymptomatic transmission – lessons from the smallpox era show that "a well-funded, well-supported public health system" was a key to success.

Others can learn from the so-called Swedish model for managing the pandemic, while at the same time should be wary of adopting its undeclared mission to achieve herd immunity. From the start of the crisis, Sweden has placed the responsibility for risk reduction on individuals and businesses rather than through government mandates. The gamble appears to have paid off, as people for the most part behaved responsibly and cautiously, suggesting a less damaging approach for the long haul. But whatever progress the country has made toward widespread immunity carries a big health cost.

Deploying a state-wide COVID-19 testing strategy requires coordinating both public and private-industry stakeholders. In Utah and New Mexico, the appointment of “testing czars,” or public health leaders in charge of coordinating testing, has led to targeted, successful strategies to ramp up testing. These “testing czars” work to coordinate with commercial and public labs to find supplies and address bottlenecks. Suppliers work to connect via conference call to discuss logistics, allowing for successful scaling in both rural and urban testing strategies.

The UC Davis Medical Center in California is piloting an internal rapid test to more efficiently detect coronavirus. Although it is still in its early stages, the development is allowing the medical professionals to test 20 critically ill people per day and get results in-house, rather than taking crucial time to send the test to an external laboratory.