title: A call to action to enhance filovirus disease outbreak preparedness and response.
abstract: The frequency and magnitude of recognized and declared filovirus-disease outbreaks have increased in recent years, while pathogenic filoviruses are potentially ubiquitous throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Meanwhile, the efficiency and effectiveness of filovirus-disease outbreak preparedness and response efforts are currently limited by inherent challenges and persistent shortcomings. This paper delineates some of these challenges and shortcomings and provides a proposal for enhancing future filovirus-disease outbreak preparedness and response. The proposal serves as a call for prompt action by the organizations that comprise filovirus-disease outbreak response teams, namely, Ministries of Health of outbreak-prone countries, the World Health Organization, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Atlanta, and others.
authors.affiliation: Independent Epidemiology Consultant, Barcelona, 08010, Spain. roddypd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Roddy
mesh_terms: D002959:Civil Defense; D004189:Disaster Planning / Q000458:organization & administration; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016563:Filoviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018702:Filoviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D014944:World Health Organization