, Columnist
Containing Ebola Is Hard. The US Made It Worse
A health worker monitors visitors arriving at the Rodolphe Mérieux Laboratory in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Photographer: Jospin Mwisha/AFP/Getty Images
A rapidly unfolding Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a reminder of the value of maintaining robust global disease surveillance and response systems — and the dire consequences of weakening them.
The outbreak came to the public’s attention just days ago, but by Tuesday had grown to more than 500 suspected cases and 130 suspected deaths. Several of those cases were imported to neighboring Uganda, and a handful have been reported in urban centers — an alarming escalation for a highly contagious virus known to kill anywhere from 25% to 50% of those it infects.