Is America Ready for Another Ebola Outbreak?…”There are 46,000 fewer people working at state and local health departments today than there were five years ago,”
By Tony Dokoupil
NBCNews.com
October 21st 2014
As Ebola flared unseen in the villages of Guinea late last year, CDC director Tom Frieden seemed to sense that something was wrong.
“Where’s the next Ebola virus going to come from?” he wondered aloud last December. “There are 46,000 fewer people working at state and local health departments today than there were five years ago,” he added. “Those are my biggest concerns.”
Now, of course, those concerns are a matter of national crisis. As Ebola ravages thousands in West Africa, state and city health officials are scrambling to prepare for the possibility of more spillover cases here at home.
The CDC has tried to help, issuing guidelines for all-manner of Ebola care. But local decision makers, much as Frieden feared, are struggling to replace years of lean budgets with a few fat weeks of hurried training.
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