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It’s not Ebola…it’s the systems

by

Authors: Victor K. Barbiero

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 non-clinical elements will not happen overnight but should proceed in a prioritized, systematic way.

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Resource Topic: CHW Role, Community Health Workers/Volunteers, Human Resources Management/Workforce Development, Leadership, Malaria, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, NON Communicable Diseases/NCD

Resource Type: Journal articles

Year: 2014

Region: Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), North America (U.S. and Canada), Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

Country: Global

Publisher May Restrict Access: No

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