Will the Ebola crisis lead to improved global health security?

By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.May 8 2015

Unprecedented in both its impact and scale, the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has led to a renewed interest in the issue of global health security. How is global health security defined? What qualifies as a global health concern? What are the implications for governmental policies and programmes?

To address some of these questions, The Lancet invited a number of respected global health practitioners to reflect on the wider lessons that can be learned from the crisis and make suggestions about steps that can be taken to counteract such threats in the future.

Through a series of essays, the review discusses whether the outbreak is likely to improve the governance of global health security and reflects on the relevance of several issues, from the use of counterfeit medicines through to the importance of securing people’s access to healthcare.

Read the full Lancet Global Health Security 2015 series: The Lancet: Global Health Security 2015

“The Ebola epidemic has clearly illustrated the importance of protecting societies from infectious disease threats that spread across national borders,” says lead author of the review David Heymann (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.)

Heymann points out that the crisis has highlighted a less appreciated aspect of global health security, which is the importance of ensuring personal access to health services and products around the world. “This needs to be better recognised as part of the scope of global health security, ” he says.

One essay discusses how global health security has been neglected by policy makers and become downgraded within the World Health Organization (WHO). The authors say the crisis has exposed WHO’s flaws and affected its credibility. Another essay argues that the Ebola crisis has revealed how ill-equipped medical research and development is to cope with global health priorities. Such priorities are not pursued, say the authors, because developments are made based on profit prospects rather than the issue of unmet health needs.

As discussed in another essay, with as much as 25% of the medicines thought to be counterfeit or substandard in low-income countries, the worldwide trade in fake medicines undermines the government’s ability to curb disease, while at the same time damaging the public’s confidence in governments and institutions.

In one essay, the authors say that the goal of universal health coverage can be only be met by bettering people’s access to safe, affordable and effective health services and products. Only then might global health security become a reality for all.

Writing in another review, Lawrence Gostin and Eric Friedman (Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, USA) say the Ebola crisis has presented an opportunity for sweeping political reforms to be made. They propose the formation of a robust global health system, with equitable national health systems and strong international health regulations at its core.

“These reforms would not only keep populations secure against epidemic threats, but would also ensure that everyday health needs were met through universal health coverage,” says Gostin.

“If the WHO fails to lead an effective, well-funded, and coordinated response when the next epidemic strikes, it could have devastating consequences in rich and poor countries alike,” he adds.