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.
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 focused on that year's epidemic and public health response.
- 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 , 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 Read about concerns for health workers in this
More on Ebola
- .
- on how to spread accurate information about Ebola
- AJPH editorial,
- (PDF)
- (PowerPoint presentation from the American Hospital Association for CME providers)
- with Ebola virus disease in U.S. hospitals