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Hubris: The Recurring Pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2014

Tom Koch
Tom Koch*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography (Medical), University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, British Columbia, Canada.
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Abstract

The 2014 Ebola outbreak has been seen by many as a “perfect storm” and an “unprecedented” public health calamity. This article attempts to place this most current of epidemics, one currently struggling for pandemic status, in an historical frame. At least since the 1600s protocols and programs for the containment of epidemic disease have been known, and mapped. And yet it was almost six months after warnings about this epidemic were first sounded that incomplete programs of control and surveillance were instituted. In effect, we have forgotten the basics of what was once common knowledge in public health. Having placed our faith in bacteriology, virology, and pharmacology, we have forgotten the lessons learned, long ago. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-6)

Keywords

pandemicsepidemicsgeographic mappingEbola
Type
Commentaries
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2014 

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