Getting Beyond Better

Chapter 6

Scaling the Solution

The 2014 Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia is by far the largest outbreak of the disease in recorded history. By March 2015, some 25,000 people had been infected and 10,000 had died. The outbreak garnered remarkable and sensational media coverage around the world, especially as infected aid workers were flown home to be treated in the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. President Obama appointed an Ebola czar to coordinate the American response to the crisis. Throughout the world, airports began screening for symptoms. Quarantines were imposed. For months, images of health workers in full hazmat suits dominated headlines.

Yet, on a global scale, 10,000 is a modest number. According ...