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Editorial
. 2014 Oct 31;2(4):374-5.
doi: 10.9745/GHSP-D-14-00186.

It's not Ebola … it's the systems

Victor K Barbiero  1
Affiliations
Editorial

It's not Ebola … it's the systems

Victor K Barbiero. Glob Health Sci Pract. .

Abstract

The 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa demonstrates key deficiencies in investment in health systems. Despite some modest investment in health systems, our field has instead largely chosen to pursue shorter-term, vertical efforts to more rapidly address key global health issues such as smallpox, polio, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. While those efforts have yielded substantial benefits, we have paid a price for the lack of investments in general systems strengthening. The Ebola deaths we have seen represent a small portion of deaths from many other causes resulting from weak systems. Major systems strengthening including crucial nonclinical elements will not happen overnight but should proceed in a prioritized, systematic way.

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References

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