IDSA Gives Congressional Staff First-Hand Glimpse at Outbreak Response

IDSA recently hosted an interactive event on Capitol Hill to educate congressional staff on the need to fully fund U.S. efforts to strengthen global capacities to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease threats where they originate. The Global Health Security Fair brought together IDSA members, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, and industry partners to showcase global health security activities supported by emergency supplemental funding provided by Congress in response to the 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak, and through congressional appropriations.

Funding for a majority of global health security efforts through the emergency Ebola supplemental bill will end in September, and Congress must appropriate additional funding to sustain current programming. IDSA members Krutika Kuppalli, MD and Daniel Lucey, MD, MPH, FIDSA, both physicians who worked on the ground in West Africa during the Ebola outbreak, engaged with Congressional staff on the importance of sustaining funding for global health security efforts. The event had an overarching simulation theme of an Ebola outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa, and congressional staff were provided with this participant guide to help them navigate through the fair.