Global Health Security in Liberia

CDC works with the Government of Liberia and partners to improve health systems and outcomes by building on existing capacities, as well as those that were developed during the response to the Ebola epidemic. During the recovery, efforts continue to help strengthen those public health systems created as a result of the epidemic and to support specific programs that meet the needs of Ebola survivors.

Our activities support the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), which aims to improve countries’ abilities to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats. In Liberia, we are doing this by focusing on key activities to:

• build surveillance systems that monitor cases of infectious diseases
• improve the safety and quality of national laboratory systems
• develop the skills of the public health workforce
• establish emergency operations centers that can quickly launch coordinated response to a public health threat.

The 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa was the largest in history. Liberia and the other affected countries suffered significant loss of human life that continues to impact communities and health systems.   In the wake of the outbreak, there have been a number of additional cases/clusters of Ebola. CDC assists with detection and control of these cases/clusters, while supporting research and programs designed to meet the needs of survivors. Our experience in Liberia has demonstrated the importance of having the capacity to detect and respond to health threats early and close to the source, stopping future outbreaks before they become epidemics.