M A Test of T


EDICAL Readiness


U.S. military ef forts in biological warfare defense preparations prove themselves with Ebola response.


by Dr. George W. Christopher, Lt. Col., USAF, MC (Ret.)


he 2014-16 outbreak of Ebola virus disease triggered an unprecedented public health disaster. For the first time since its discovery in 1976, Ebola struck large, crowded and mobile urban populations. It was the largest Ebola outbreak in both numbers of cases and geographic distribution,


with more than 28,000 cases, 11,000 deaths and 10 times the number of all previ- ous Ebola outbreaks combined. Te virus spread rapidly through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, striking Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States as well. In the public health crises over past 100 years, only the 1918 influenza pandemic, the emergence of the human immunodeficiency virus and AIDS in the 1980s and the recent surge in antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections had greater impacts than Ebola.


Coordinated actions are what ended the Ebola outbreak. Te total numbers of cases and deaths ultimately were far below initial projections, in large part because of the use of medical products originally developed by DOD to counter biological warfare threats.


Several lessons can be drawn from this experience to better prepare for future out- breaks. For one, products for biological warfare defense can be used for naturally occurring epidemics. For another, partnerships with other federal, private sector and host-nation stakeholders were key. Nevertheless, DOD’s investment to develop medical products for rare but lethal diseases like Ebola was critical. In addition, the response to the Ebola outbreak underscores the difficulty of conducting clinical research during an epidemic and the corresponding need to proactively stage clinical trial sites.


ASC.ARMY.MIL 75


SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY


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