title: The Ebola Outbreak of 2014-2015: From Coordinated Multilateral Action to Effective Disease Containment, Vaccine Development, and Beyond.
abstract: The Ebola outbreak of 2014-2015 exacted a terrible toll on major countries of West Africa. Latest estimates from the World Health Organization indicate that over 11,000 lives were lost to the deadly virus since the first documented case was officially recorded. However, significant progress in the fight against Ebola was made thanks to a combination of globally-supported containment efforts, dissemination of key information to the public, the use of modern information technology resources to better track the spread of the outbreak, as well as more effective use of active surveillance, targeted travel restrictions, and quarantine procedures. This article will outline the progress made by the global public health community toward containing and eventually extinguishing this latest outbreak of Ebola. Economic consequences of the outbreak will be discussed. The authors will emphasize policies and procedures thought to be effective in containing the outbreak. In addition, we will outline selected episodes that threatened inter-continental spread of the disease. The emerging topic of post-Ebola syndrome will also be presented. Finally, we will touch on some of the diagnostic (e.g., point-of-care [POC] testing) and therapeutic (e.g., new vaccines and pharmaceuticals) developments in the fight against Ebola, and how these developments may help the global public health community fight future epidemics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Wojda
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Valenza
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cornejo
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McGinley
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Sagar C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Galwankar
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: Dhanashree
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kelkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Richard P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Sharpe
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Papadimos
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, USA.
authors.forename: Stanislaw P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Stawicki
keywords: Diagnostic and therapeutic update; Ebola outbreak; West Africa; epidemiology; socioeconomic developments