Disease Outbreaks

• Recent outbreaks of measles in the US, Cyclosporiasis, and Ebola in Africa are spreading at unprecedented levels, exposing critical vulnerabilities in global public health infrastructure. • The resurgence of measles in the US has reached record levels, primarily driven by vaccine hesitancy and declining vaccination rates that have eroded herd immunity. • These concurrent crises highlight systemic failures in disease surveillance and the fragility of preventative healthcare systems worldwide.

As measles, hantavirus and cyclospora spread, experts say lost staff and expertise are slowing the responseA series of health challenges – hantavirus, screwworm, Ebola, cyclospora, measles, whooping cough, bird flu – are exposing the widening gaps in America’s ability to prevent, identify and halt infectious disease outbreaks.The rapid dismantling of the US public health system at all levels means the US is in worse shape than it was before the Covid pandemic, former top CDC officials say. Continue reading...

• The U.S. federal government has implemented funding cuts and personnel downsizing within biopreparedness programs dedicated to high-consequence infectious diseases (HCID). • These reductions occur while the U.S. is actively managing threats from Ebola and a Hantavirus cluster associated with cruise ship travel. • Although existing infrastructure and protocols are currently handling these outbreaks, experts warn that diminished resources will leave the nation less prepared for future pandemics.