IT'S 2014 IN LIBERIA. The country's largest hospital is already full to the brim, unable to admit. Instead, the sick lie on the ground outside, writhing and crying in pain. They're struck with severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, impaired kidney and liver function, perhaps even internal bleeding. Up to 90 percent of those sick will die. Their only hope of getting treatment is if someone else dies first, freeing up a bed. The culprit behind the devastation? Ebola. By 2016, the outbreak ended with more than 11,000 reported deaths across West Africa. In the aftermath, experts underscored that, during the worst months, few were prepared for such catastrophe - neither the countries that suffered most, nor the international community at large. Though the World Health Organization eventually declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, it came late, and arguably, so did vital funding. And while few cases spread outside the continent, the resulting panic certainly did.
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