10 Years Since the West Africa Ebola Outbreak

Just over 10 years ago, in March 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea. The identification of these early cases marked the beginning of the West Africa Ebola outbreak, the largest in history.

While infectious diseases like Ebola aren’t new, where, how, and sometimes even which diseases are emerging to threaten public health are all evolving. Due to global trade and travel, climate change, and other factors, the risks have increased substantially in recent decades. Today, pressing viral, bacterial, soil, and vector-borne diseases are each formidable. And it is only a matter of time until a new one emerges to threaten human health.

Read more about the disease and the myriad of complex cultural, political, and economic factors that contribute to the conditions that allow Ebola to exist in West Africa in “Ebola Virus Disease and our Outbreak Response.”

Following the Outbreak

In the months following the identification of those first cases in Guinea and then Sierra Leone, the United States Department of Defense was helping with support for diagnostic testing in the early response. Unfortunately, because they were initially dependent on laboratories far removed from the remote outbreak epicenters, the turnaround time to run tests was more than 24 hours. As you can imagine, a patient who is symptomatic and ill enough to visit for testing is one who needs a prompt diagnosis and immediate care.

It was after this that the Department of Defense called on MRIGlobal to design, fabricate, equip, deploy, and operate a better solution that would help provide localized diagnostics and decrease the time from sample-to-answer in these countries.