What is Ebola? It’s a severe, often deadly disease that can infect humans and non-human primates such as monkeys, gorillas and chimpanzees. The disease is spread via an infected person’s body fluids, objects like needles that have been infected by a sick person’s body fluids, or infected animals.
This cover story in The Nation's Health outlines the public health response and APHA's support.
What is APHA Doing?
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa — the largest in history — sparked an international public health response. For example, APHA:
- Made the Ebola-Marburg virus chapter from the Control of Communicable Diseases Manual available free of charge.
- Issued an action alert about the importance of public health funding in the wake of the outbreak.
- Spoke out in the news.
- Hosted a session at the 2014 APHA Annual Meeting focused on that year's epidemic and public health response.
- Held a call with CDC officials so APHA members could learn more about the outbreak response.
- Passed a 2014 policy statement calling for strengthening Ebola response and protection for health workers.
In this U.S. News & World Report piece, our executive director, Georges Benjamin, MD, argues against implementing a travel ban to Ebola-affected countries and explains the importance of supporting a strong public health response.
Learn about Ebola in this Get Ready blog post.
Read about concerns for health workers in this cover story from The Nation's Health.
More on Ebola