Outbreaks: Protecting Americans From Infectious Disease

Outbreaks: Protecting Americans From Infectious Disease

This report examines infectious disease preparedness across 10 indicators in each state of the US, particularly in reference to the recent Ebola outbreak.

2014

The Ebola outbreak exposed specific weaknesses in the American public health system, such as a lack of hospitals capable of caring for highly contagious patients while protecting workers, lack of a widely available diagnostic test, and the lack of medical countermeasures. Other potential threats may come from antibiotic resistance, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, TB, STIs, and Chagas Disease.