Part One: The Future of Health Security

The World Health Organization recently declared that the outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in Liberia is over. At the peak of transmission for Liberia, which was in August and September 2014, the country was reporting 300 to 400 new cases weekly. Now Liberia has zero new cases of Ebola. WHO calls the declaration “monumental” for a country that “reported the highest numbers of deaths in the largest, longest and most complex outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976.”

Over 10,000 people have died in West Africa since the Ebola outbreak was officially declared on March 22nd in Guinea. The outbreak is the largest ever and at its height it spanned seven nations four of which have been declared Ebola free. “It will happen again,” says the Director of Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy at UCSF Global Health Sciences.