Ted talk 2

 Ted talk 2

Name of the speaker - George Zaidan

Ted talk is about The epidemics that almost happened

Ebola is one of the deadliest viruses, killing about half of those it infects. It can spread through blood and sweat, and even the dead can transmit the disease, often at their own funerals.On December 26th, 2013, a two-year-old boy in southern Guinea got sick and died. It took local doctors and the international community four months to discover that Ebola was to blame. The outbreak lasted two years and became the largest Ebola epidemic in recorded history, with over 28,000 people contracting the disease and over 11,000 dying.

In 2013, Guinea had no formal emergency response system, few trained contact tracers, and no rapid tests, border screenings, or licensed vaccine for Ebola. After the 2013 epidemic, Guinea, with the support of the US and other international partners, completely overhauled their epidemic response system. In January 2021, the system faced its first real test when a nurse in southern Guinea developed a headache, vomiting, and fever and died. Health officials suspected Ebola and ordered tests, which came back positive. The National Agency for Health Security activated 38 district-level emergency operations centers, as well as a national one.

Teams of epidemiologists and contact tracers began the painstaking job of figuring out who was exposed and when, generating a list of 23 initial contacts that quickly grew to over 1,100. Advanced rapid testing capacity spun up in the city where the outbreak started, public health workers screened more than 2 million travelers, a large-scale vaccination campaign was started, and more than 900 community mobilizers alerted people of the outbreak and suggested alternative burial practices. The 2021 outbreak ended just four months after it began, with only 23 people contracted Ebola In August of 2021, a truck driver tested positive for cholera in Burkina Faso and health care workers alerted the government that same day and contact tracing began immediately. This extremely fast response stopped the outbreak just a few weeks after it started. In Chiang Mai, Thailand, health officials piloted a community-owned, community-driven outbreak alert system to monitor animal health.

Over the course of 16 months, 36 animal outbreaks were identified. For any outbreak response system to be effective, it needs to be trusted, valued, and ultimately used by communities. Investing in lasting health infrastructure, 365 days a year, is one of the best ways to save lives.