Financial Times: Ebola outbreak in DRC is 'dress rehearsal' for new health challenge

MOSCOW, June 13 - RIA Novosti. The Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is a “dress rehearsal” for a new challenge that the global health system may face due to problems with funding and trust in scientific institutions, the Financial Times newspaper writes, citing sources.

"Ebola is unlikely to be the cause of the next pandemic... But the outbreak in DR Congo is a dress rehearsal for what might come next in an era when international funding for global health is dwindling... and public trust in science and multilateral solutions is fading," the newspaper said.

One of the newspaper’s interlocutors, director of the global health program at the American Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas Bollyky, explained the outbreak of the virus in DR Congo by the weakness of the new global health system. While health workers and scientists know better than ever how to respond to such emergencies, the institutions and public support they rely on are more fragile than at any time in years, he said.

The Financial Times also cites an assessment by Trudy Lang, a professor of global health at Oxford University, who noted that the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is testing systems that will one day be needed for a much larger emergency.

"This is a tragedy for the local community, although not an immediate threat to our leafy suburbs... But the next one could be," Lang told the newspaper, referring to the so-called "Disease X": the as-yet-unidentified virus that will cause the next pandemic.