Public Health Intelligence: Learning From the Ebola Crisis

Abstract

Today's public health crises, as exemplified by the Ebola outbreak, lead to dramatic calls to action that typically include improved electronic monitoring systems to better prepare for, and respond to, similar occurrences in the future. Even a preliminary public health informatics evaluation of the current Ebola crisis exposes the need for enhanced coordination and sharing of trustworthy public health intelligence. We call for a consumer-centric model of public health intelligence and the formation of a national center to guide public health intelligence gathering and synthesis. Sharing accurate and actionable information with government agencies, health care practitioners, policymakers, and, critically, the general public, will mark a shift from doing public health surveillance on people to doing public health surveillance for people.

Health Departments’ Engagement in Emergency Preparedness Activities: The Influence of Health Informatics Capacity

“…The recent Ebola crisis is a perfect example in our lack of harnessing informatics capacity to share and use information, and coordinate our responses to improve emergency preparedness and response. 33 The ability to communicate is listed as one of the 15 capabilities developed by the CDC 3,31 and is a major indicator of success in preparedness efforts. 34 Our findings can inform efforts to improve emergency preparedness capacity, as we are experiencing more high-impact natural disasters that are harmful to the public's health.…”

Identification of the essential components of quality in the data collection process for public health information systems

“…Over-emphasis on the procedures, methods, and quality control parts of data collection and simply automating data collection systems cannot solve all data quality problems. 21 Data collectors play an important role in the quality of the data collection process. Extant data quality assessment instruments have not paid sufficient attention to data collectors except for their training experience.…”

Modelling the daily risk of Ebola in the presence and absence of a potential vaccine

“…Recombinant Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (rVSV-ZEBOV) is currently the only Ebola vaccine with demonstrated clinical efficacy in a ring-vaccination clinical trial ( Levy et al, 2017 ). This vaccine contains rVSV, a virus that causes disease in cattle, deer, horses and pigs but causes few problems in humans ( Carney & Weber, 2015 ). rVSV-ZEBOV is a recombinant, replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus-based candidate vaccine in which the VSV envelope glycoprotein was replaced with the Zaire strain ebolavirus (ZEBOV) glycoprotein ( Carney & Weber, 2015 ).…”

“…This vaccine contains rVSV, a virus that causes disease in cattle, deer, horses and pigs but causes few problems in humans ( Carney & Weber, 2015 ). rVSV-ZEBOV is a recombinant, replication-competent vesicular stomatitis virus-based candidate vaccine in which the VSV envelope glycoprotein was replaced with the Zaire strain ebolavirus (ZEBOV) glycoprotein ( Carney & Weber, 2015 ). The genetically engineered VSV envelope expresses the homologous EBOV glycoprotein from the Zaire ebolavirus as the immunogen in response to the Ebola virus ( Sameem & Dias, 2017 ).…”